FireApproved

United States / Grow / Sassafras

Sassafras

Sassafras · Lauraceae · all Sassafras records · Wikipedia

View Saved

Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Form
tree
Region
China
Rated in
Global
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Evidence regions
Global

2. Why this plant is relevant here

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Listed without a rating (9)
Corroboration (9 rows from 1 source)

  • FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

    9 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.

    • Primary study Xu2020: Xu L, Li S, Sun W, Ma X, & Cao S. (2020). Combustion behaviors and characteristic parameters determination of sassafras wood under different heating conditions. Energy, 203, 117831.

      Shared row context: plant part wood; fuel dead; predrying yes; device calorimeter; site Xu2020-1; sampling ND.

      • Shared measurement context: Ignitability measurement.

        • “time to flaming (s): 93”

          FLAMITS record 19152.

        • “time to flaming (s): 108”

          FLAMITS record 19153.

        • “time to flaming (s): 144”

          FLAMITS record 19154.

      • Shared measurement context: Combustibility measurement.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 10024.36”

          FLAMITS record 19155.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 5448.07”

          FLAMITS record 19156.

        • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 6487.05”

          FLAMITS record 19157.

        • “mass loss rate (g/s): 0.24”

          FLAMITS record 19158.

        • “mass loss rate (g/s): 0.15”

          FLAMITS record 19159.

        • “mass loss rate (g/s): 0.17”

          FLAMITS record 19160.

Fire-resistant trees instead

post oak
Quercus stellata northern red oak
Quercus rubra Gambel oak
Quercus gambelii American basswood
Tilia americana oak
Quercus spp. Dahurian larch
Larix gmelinii
Same genus in the directory · the Sassafras group page

Last verified 2026-08-25. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Sassafras (Sassafras). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/sassafras/. Last verified 2026-08-25.