With the high summer temperatures, newspapers, television, magazines, and other media are inundated with soft drink advertisements.
In addition to offering relief from the dehydrating heat, some ads state or imply the consumers of these usually sugary concoctions are adventurous, sophisticated, or just blissfully happy.
It is truly amazing what can be accomplished with some carbonated water, sweetener (natural and artificial), and flavoring. One of the original flavorings is a native plant in the region.
Sassafras albidum is a deciduous native with a long history of multiple uses. Leaves of this tree have turned up in the fossil record from the far distant past.
The lush green foliage in close proximity may appear to be two species intertangled in the dense growth of summer. In reality, it is only one species.
Sassafras has many unusual and unique features, its leaf variation being one example. Each plant may have leaves of three wildly different shapes.
Some leaves can be oval, others with one lobe, and still others with three lobes. This variation may occur from branch to branch, or several shapes could be on a single branch.
The sassafras tree has the potential to reach 60 feet, but most are much shorter. Trunk diameter maximum is 12 inches.
Sassafras wood has served in a number of ways over the centuries. While relatively weak and brittle, this quick growing species has been used for fence rails and post and ox yokes. Its durability and light weight make it ideal for boat building.
Sassafras lumber and roots were the motivation for a 1603 expedition from Bristol, England in which two ships returned to their home port with their hulls partially laden with the desired commodity. During the early 17th century sassafras, along with tobacco, were major American exports to the British Empire.
Some sassafras leaves can be oval, others with one lobe, and still others with three lobes. This variation may occur from branch to branch, or several shapes could be on a single branch.
Despite the uses for sassafras lumber, the roots proved to have the most impact commercially. Numerous indigenous tribes had used the sassafras root for the basis of medicinal treatments long before being discovered by European explorers.
First exported to Great Britain by Sir Francis Drake in 1602, demand for sassafras roots grew quickly.
It was marketed as a treatment for scurvy, skin sores, kidney problems, toothaches, rheumatism, swelling, bronchitis, hypertension, dysentery, fever and other disorders plaguing residents of the time.
Home brewers of the day on both sides of the Atlantic began experimenting with the root as an addition to their favorite libation. There were alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions of this increasingly popular beverage.
Pharmacist Charles Hires introduced a commercial version of root beer at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The success was quickly evident, and distribution was nationwide within a few decades.
Locating, harvesting and processing sassafras roots became a small industry. Prohibition served only to accelerate the demand for the dark brown flavoring agent.
Sassafras oil, the key flavoring ingredient in root beer, was determined to have carcinogenic properties in 1960. Its use was promptly banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The flavor was so popular with consumers everywhere that companies developed artificial flavors to replace the forbidden ingredient. Demand for natural sassafras evaporated and the tree became a footnote in the cola wars.
Today sassafras trees have returned to the wild in panhandle Florida. Some consider this native a nuisance weed to be removed, while a few others are cultivated as landscape specimens.
No matter how it is perceived by modern residents, this storied tree is growing in multiple locations across north Florida.
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