Sassafras tzumu Seeds | Tzumu
LATIN NAME: Sassafras tzumu
COMMON NAME: Tzumu
Plant Profile
Known to gardeners as Tzumu, Sassafras tzumu is a tree in the laurel family. Tzumu is a tall, straight tree of misty valleys, and fine, yellow-green flowers open in small clusters through early spring. Wood has a long record as fine, fragrant, soft timber of old craft, and tree is a fine, bold presence of study collection. Bees and other pollinators visit the flowers freely through the season. For the gardener, the sum of these traits is a plant that is easy to live with.
Science & Biotechnology
Within the laurel family, Sassafras tzumu is of continuing interest to researchers working on plant diversity, seed biology and the selection of improved garden forms. Species like this one find a second career as research material, especially in propagation and breeding work.
Uses & Benefits
Beyond its ornamental appeal, Tzumu has the practical versatility that makes a plant worth growing from seed year after year. Tzumu is a fine, bold tree of study collection and large garden. Tall, straight trunks rise into fine, fragrant, soft timber of old craft, worked into furniture, boxes and fine objects of old joinery, and small, yellow-green flowers open along bare branches through early spring. It has been written up in forestry and botanical papers for straight trunks and fragrant wood, and it is a fine, long-lived tree of open, sunny to partly shaded, deep, moist, well-drained garden. A plant that has settled in will get along with only routine care.
Sassafras root bark was the original flavor of root beer and a famous American spring tonic, until safrole regulation ended its culinary era; the tree remains a treasure for its mitten leaves and fiery fall color.
Growing from Seed
Seed is the natural starting point for Tzumu, and the process is uncomplicated. Fill a pot with a light seed compost, sow evenly on the surface, cover thinly and stand it somewhere warm, bright and evenly moist. Shift the seedlings into small pots as soon as they can be handled, and give them bright light until planting-out time.
Our Take
Tzumu repays a little patience at sowing time with plenty of garden presence later.
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