Leaf Color Range If it weren’t for sassafras, we wouldn’t have root beer. The roots and root bark supply oil of sassafras used to perfume soap. The oil is also used to make sassafras tea, as well as flavoring root beer. It is a small tree or thicket forming shrub, common and wide- spread in the Pittsburgh area. Several large examples can be seen in Allegheny Cemetery in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Lawrenceville. Height: 30’-60’ Leaves: 3”-5” long, 1-1/2”-4” wide. Alternate, simple. Elliptical, often with 2 mitten-shaped lobes. Shiny green above; paler and often hairy beneath, turning yellow, orange, and red in fall. Habitat: In moist, sandy soils of upland valleys, often in old fields, clearings, and forest openings from Ontario, to Maine and west to Texas and south to Florida.