''Sassafras randaiense'' is a species of deciduous

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the family

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant family that includes the true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genera worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016 ). They are dicotyledons, and occur ma ...

belonging to the genus ''

Sassafras ''Sassafras'' is a genus of three extant and one extinct species of deciduous trees in the family Lauraceae, native to eastern North America and eastern Asia.Wolfe, Jack A. & Wehr, Wesley C. 1987. The sassafras is an ornamental tree. "Middle Eoc ...

''. It is a

relict species In biogeography and paleontology, a relict is a population or taxon of organisms that was more widespread or more diverse in the past. A relictual population is a population currently inhabiting a restricted area whose range was far wider during a ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Classification

''Sassafras randaiense'' 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 In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

Description

''Sassafras randaiense'' is a medium-sized

deciduous tree In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, afte ...

. The leaves are alternate, rhomboid-ovate, 10–15 cm long and 5–6 cm broad, and are

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin '' glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

above and

glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), g ...

beneath. The

leaf shape The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

is variable, with most leaves simple (entire) without lobes, but 2 to 3-lobed leaves can be found on some trees, a feature it shares with the North American species ''S. albidum'' and † ''S. hesperia''. The leaves of ''S. randaiense'' have an acute apex, and the leaf base is acute or obtuse. The flowers are

hermaphroditic In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrates) do not have separ ...

and subterminal, in

panicles A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are o ...

that are 3 cm long. The fruits are globose, 6–7 mm across, and are attached on a thickened

pedicel Pedicle or pedicel may refer to: Human anatomy *Pedicle of vertebral arch, the segment between the transverse process and the vertebral body, and is often used as a radiographic marker and entry point in vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty procedures ...

2.5–3 cm long. Flowering occurs usually in February with fruit maturing in October. ''S. randaiense'' is found in broad-leaved forests from 900 to 2,400 m throughout the island of

Distinguishing characteristics from ''Sassafras albidum''

Along with ''

Sassafras tzumu ''Sassafras tzumu'' (Chinese sassafras, Cha mu) is a species of ''Sassafras'' native to China, in Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Yunnan and Zhejiang. It grows in either sparse or dense forests habita ...

'', ''Sassafras randaiense'' is distinguished from the North American ''

Sassafras albidum ''Sassafras albidum'' (sassafras, white sassafras, red sassafras, or silky sassafras) is a species of ''Sassafras'' native to eastern North America, from southern Maine and southern Ontario west to Iowa, and south to central Florida and eastern T ...

'' and extinct '' Sassafras hesperia'' by some important characteristics, including that they may have both male flowers and female flowers on the same tree, while the North American species are

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

(individual plants bear only male or only female flowers). Molecular data also shows some differences between the Chinese and North American species.

References

Lauraceae Endemic flora of Taiwan Vulnerable plants Trees of Taiwan Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Laurales-stub