Editing Sassafras (section)

== Taxonomy ==
The genus ''Sassafras'' was first described by the [[Bohemia]]n botanist [[Jan Presl]] in 1825.<ref name=IPNI_21501-1>{{IPNI |id=21501-1 |taxon=Sassafras |access-date=2017-11-30 }}</ref> The name "sassafras", applied by the botanist [[Nicolas Monardes]] in 1569, comes from the French {{lang|fr|sassafras}}. Some sources claim it originates from the Latin {{lang|la|saxifraga}} or {{wikt-lang|la|saxifragus}}: "stone-breaking"; {{wikt-lang|la|saxum}} "rock" + {{wikt-lang|la|frango|frangere}} "to break").<ref name=BibAm>{{cite book |title=Bibliotheca Americana: Catalogue of the John Carter Brown Library in Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Volume 1, Part 2 |date=1570 |location=Providence, RI |author=John Carter Brown Library |publisher=The Library |pages=246, 267, 346 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VoYYAAAAMAAJ&q=%22sassafras%22 |access-date=2014-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518220801/https://books.google.com/books?id=VoYYAAAAMAAJ&q=%22sassafras%22 |archive-date=2015-05-18 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Webster1913>{{cite book|title=Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary|date=1913|pages=1277–1280|edition=1913|url=http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=sassafras&use1913=on&use1828=on|access-date=2014-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210030639/http://machaut.uchicago.edu/?resource=Webster%27s&word=sassafras&use1913=on&use1828=on |archive-date=2014-12-10|url-status=dead}}</ref> Sassafras trees are not within the family [[Saxifragaceae]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Early European colonists reported that the plant was called ''winauk'' by Native Americans in Delaware and Virginia and ''pauane'' by the [[Timucua]]. Native Americans distinguished between white sassafras and red sassafras, terms which referred to different parts of the same plant but with distinct colors and uses.<ref>{{cite book |last=Austin |first=Daviel |date=November 29, 2004 |title=Florida Ethnobotany |url=https://archive.org/details/floridaethnobota00aust|url-access=limited |publisher=CRC Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/floridaethnobota00aust/page/n631 606] |isbn=978-0-8493-2332-4 }}</ref>  Sassafras was known as fennel wood (German {{lang|de|Fenchelholz}}) due to its distinctive aroma.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weaver |first=William |date=December 19, 2000 |title=Sauer's Herbal Cures: America's First Book of Botanic Healing, 1762–1778 |publisher=Routledge |page=274 |isbn=978-0-415-92360-6 }}</ref>{{clarify|date=September 2015}}

=== Species ===
The genus ''Sassafras'' includes four species, three extant and one extinct. Sassafras plants are endemic to North America and East Asia, with two species in each region that are distinguished by some important characteristics, including the frequency of three-lobed leaves (more frequent in East Asian species) and aspects of their sexual reproduction (North American species being dioecious).{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Taiwanese sassafras, [[Taiwan]], is treated by some botanists in a distinct genus as ''Yushunia randaiensis'' (Hayata) Kamikoti, though this is not supported by recent genetic evidence, which shows ''Sassafras'' to be [[monophyletic]].<ref name=nie /><ref name=kamikoti>Kamikoti, S. (1933). ''Ann. Rep. Taihoku Bot. Gard''. 3: 78</ref>

==== North America ====
[[File:Sassafras hesperia 01.jpg|thumb|right|Fossil ''[[Sassafras hesperia]]'' leaf from Early [[Ypresian]], Klondike Mountain Formation, Washington, USA]]
* ''[[Sassafras albidum]]'' (Nuttall) Nees – '''sassafras''', '''white sassafras''', '''red sassafras''', or '''silky sassafras''', eastern North America, from southernmost [[Ontario]], [[Canada]] through the eastern [[United States]], south to central [[Florida]], and west to southern [[Iowa]] and [[East Texas]], formerly, Wisconsin<ref name=usfs1>{{Silvics |first=Margene M. |last=Griggs |volume=2 |genus=Sassafras |species=albidum}}</ref>
* †''[[Sassafras hesperia]]'' (Berry) – western North American, from the [[Eocene]] [[Klondike Mountain Formation]] of [[Washington (state)|Washington]] and [[British Columbia]];<ref name="WW1987" /> extinct, known only from fossils.

==== East Asia ====
* ''[[Sassafras tzumu]]'' (Hemsl.) Hemsl. – '''Chinese sassafras''' or '''''tzumu''''', central and southwestern [[China]]
* ''[[Sassafras randaiense]]'' (Hayata) Rehd. – Taiwan