Southern Sassafras typically grows in the bottom of deep forest gullies beneath towering Mountain Ash in Victoria's mountain forests.  In the Forest Gallery, several small Sassafras trees were planted in the protected southern end in 2000 and recently the largest of these have grown up to balcony level.   Today the horticulture staff noticed that they have flowered for the very first time.  The small cream flowers have a very strong and lovely sweet scent not unlike daphne.  The chemistry of Sassafras is fascinating and has been used as a medicinal plant by Aboriginal people and investigated by chemists in more recent times.  Aboriginal people are thought to have used Sassafras to treat venereal disease - a practice later taken up be European settlers.  The tree's bark was once marketed in England as “Victorian Sassafras” and used to make a tonic drink. This caused a great debate with pharmacist J. Bosisto and doctors in Melbourne who believed Sassafras oil to be poisonous, when British doctors insisted it was safe to take even in large quantities.  Sassafras was the first Australian plant from which an alkaloid was isolated. The leaves are the sole food plant for for caterpillars of the beautiful and rarely seen MacLeay’s Swallowtail Butterfly.  Visitors to the Forest Gallery in the next few weeks will be able to see the flowers in the tree canopy up close from the balcony level.

Scented blooms of the Sassafras in Melbourne Museum's Forest Gallery Photo: Andrew Kuhlmann Source: Museum Victoria

Click here to see the life stages of Macleay's Swallowtail Butterfly