This root-suckering tree is widespread across eastern states, except the upper midwest. Although widely scattered in Ky., it is virtually absent from more base-rich soils, especially on lowlands. It was formerly more abundant in old fields and other transitions to farmland, before suppression of fire and invasions by Pinus viriginiana and Juniperus virginiana. Gm noted: "sprouts of this plant, with persimmon, green brier and others make work for those desirous of clearing land quickly." The "sassafras-persimmon forest cover type" of ca. 1900-1950 that was outlined by Society of American Foresters (Eyre 1980) is now virtually all gone, at least in Ky. Both Sassafras and Diospyros (persimmon) are generally described as diocieous, but Blount (1989) found that at least 10% of generally male trees had a few bisexual flowers; in whole populations about 60-75% of trees were generally male. Blount (1989) also found that males tended to be larger, on average, and to have less damage from cankers. Despite having somewhat toxic alkaloids (Custodio & da Veiga 2014), shoots of Sassafras are moderately palatable to hungry deer (Atwood 1941) and other mammals, especially muskrats, rabbits (C. Sither, pers. comm.) and groundhogs (Hahn 1907) in some seasons. Sassafras is one of few deciduous woody plants in Ky. that has greenish twigs into the second or even third year; see also Acer negundo, Euonymus americana, Oxydendrum arboreum and Smilax rotundifolia. Sassafras is generally a thicket-forming tree with running roots (like Diospyros), especially on dry or disturbed sites (Blount 1989). It is rarely reaches more than 50-100 cm dbh, but there are occasional open-grown trees with much larger size. The national champion is reported from Owensboro in DAVI, at 37.7549N -87.1119W (KDF 2020): 228 cm dbh, 19 m tall, and 16 m wide in 2016.