Atherosperma moschatum seed

LATIN NAME: Atherosperma moschatum

COMMON NAME: Southern Sassafras

The southern sassafras is a handsome, upright, tall, evergreen tree of the cool, moist forests, and its fine, narrow, aromatic, dark-green leaves and its small, white, star-shaped, fragrant flowers, followed by the small, dry, many-seeded fruits, have made it a treasured and fine tree of the region. It grows as an upright, tall, evergreen tree, reaching up to thirty metres or so, with the upright, tapering trunk bearing the fine, narrow, pointed, aromatic, dark-green leaves and, through the spring, the small, white, star-shaped, fragrant flowers of the many fine petals, followed by the small, dry, many-seeded fruits. It is a species of the flowering tree in the southern sassafras family, and it is native to the cool, moist forests of the south-eastern Australia and the Tasmania, while it is prized for its fine, aromatic wood, and it is known as the southern sassafras.

In the southern sassafras family it is the tall, aromatic tree of the cool southern forests, a plant whose very leaves carry the scent of the bush.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The southern sassafras oils hold a steady place in the natural-product chemistry of the southern forests, and the spicy, sweet volatiles in the leaves and the bark have been examined with care by the chemists of the region. The forest botanists have mapped its place in the cool, moist forests of the south-eastern Australia and the Tasmania, and the forestry researchers have studied the fine, straight, aromatic wood for the timber trade. The horticulturists have grown the evergreen, star-flowered form for the cool garden, and the growers of the southern forest trees keep the species in their collections for the fragrance and the stately form.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

In the cool forest garden, the southern sassafras is the tall, aromatic tree that brings the bush into the garden. Its small, white, star-shaped flowers feed the bees, the dense, aromatic, evergreen crown gives year-round cover for the birds, and the fine, straight wood has served the cabinetry and the crafts of the region. The leaves carry the sweet, spicy scent that gives the tree its name, and it grows well in the cool, moist, acid, well-drained ground of the sheltered spot. Aromatic, star-flowered and stately.

Soak the seeds in tepid water for a short while, then sow them at a shallow depth in pots of rich, acid, free-draining compost, keep the pots in a cool, sheltered spot out of the strong sun and never let them dry out, and the first fine leaves will follow, each one carrying the scent of the southern forest.