Forgot to post answer last night. Well sassafras it is. Pic of a small sapling growing right next to the bigger tree showing the other leaf shapes. Usually they have two or more of the leaf shapes. Pic of the three leaf shapes. The "mitten" and three lobed one classic of a sassy
This I remember from Boy Scouts years ago. They used to say hand , mitten and glove for the three different leaves.
Any of you folks ever dig up the roots in the winter for Tea? It's been a few years since I've had some Sassafras tea.
I'd love to try it myself, but haven't come across anyone that knows much about it. Some decades ago there was an aggressive PR campaign smearing sassafras tea as carcinogenic, and it fell by the wayside.
Safrole can be used to make MDA or MDMA whichever one is Ecstacy. Supposedly when used to make tea some people claim to feel "euphoric" So they fed it to lab rats that get cancer when fed high does of things at high doses and they tended to get cancer so they banned it as a food substance. I'm fairly certain they had already found cheaper artificial flavor for root beer and sasparilla before it was banned for food use. Besides I'm fairly certain sasparilla uses/used birch tree sap for flavor.
Growing up I recall my uncle digging up sassy roots near the train tracks and making tea with it...'twas good!
when I was about 14 I went on a 4H backpacking trip through the Green Mountains. Tour Guide made up some sassafras Tea from fresh growth twigs, not roots. Might have even been some leaves in there, can’t remember. Tasted ok, everything in The mountains tastes good. I’m still alive anyway.
