Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Atherosperma moschatum
Common name
Black sassafras, Southern sassafras
Family
Atherospermataceae
Where found
Mainly rainforest.
subsp. integrifolium: Mainly Blue Mountains. Occasionally Monga National Park east of Braidwood.
subsp. moschatum: Western edge of the ranges south from Brown Mtn west of Bega. Occasionally Kosciuszko National Park.
Notes
Tree or shrub to about 30 m high. Bark smooth, fissured longitudinally, horizontally wrinkled. Branchlets furrowed, often flattened at the nodes, usually densely brown hairy with T-shaped hairs (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves strongly nutmeg-scented when rubbed. Leaves opposite each other, 2–10 cm long, 8–25 mm wide, margins entire or coarsely and irregularly toothed, upper surface almost hairless, lower surface densely grey- to white-hairy. Male and female flowers on the same plant, with male flowers above the female on each branchlet. Flowers fragrant. Flowers white or greenish, usually with purplish markings, with 4-8 'petals' in 2 whorls, each 'petal' 6–10 mm long. 2 sepal-like bracts cupping the flowers in bud. Flowers single. Flowers Winter to Spring.
Faminly was Monimiaceae.
subsp. integrifolium: Shrub or tree to 10 m high. Margins of adult leaves usually entire, occasionally with small teeth. Juvenile leaves sometimes sparsely and irregularly toothed.
subsp. moschatum: Tree to about 30 m high, often multistemmed. Margins of adult and juvenile leaves usually toothed, rarely completely entire or only with an occasional tooth.
PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Atherosperma~moschatum (accessed 4 January, 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
