Sassafras 11 Inch.

Sassafras albidum, while native to North America, is significant in the economic, medical, and cultural history of Europe as well as North America. In North America, it has particular culinary significance, being featured in distinct national foods such as traditional root beer and File powder, used in Louisiana Creole cuisine. Sassafras albidum was an important plant to many Native Americans of the southeastern United States and was used for many purposes, including culinary and medicinal purposes, before the European colonization of North America. Its significance for Native Americans is also magnified, as the European quest for sassafras as a commodity for export brought Europeans into closer contact with Native Americans during the early years of European settlement in the 16th and 17th centuries, in Florida, Virginia, and other parts of the Northeast.