Mary Lou Falkenstein: Color me fall

Trick or treat! Are you ready to go? Do you have a new mask, or are you wearing the same one you've worn all year, like I am? It's a scary one!

Remember when you got excited about the whole Halloween thing? What to wear? What to be?

With age, we begin to enjoy other things this time of year. Each season has its own beauty. Winter has the wonder of the snowflake. Spring, the leafing and flowering of trees and summer gives us the fruit of all that bloomed.

Then, there is fall. It gives us the most brilliant colors of all the seasons. All the shades and hues of red, yellow, orange and brown, to name a few.

It seems each species of trees has a special hue. The maple, oak, willow and thousands more. My all-time favorite is the sassafras tree and at the end of this it may be yours, too.

The sassafras tree is unique in so many ways, it’s hard to believe. It has family of its own — belonging to the Lauraceae family and it is fussy about where it grows. It likes the Northeastern United States — Great Lakes and Adirondack area of New York and in a similar area in China.

It blooms in early spring with a sweet-smelling blossom that turns into leaves. This tree has three different leaves, an oval shape, a mitten shape and a mitten with two thumbs. When color changes in autumn, it takes on various hues to make for one of the more beautiful trees in the woods.

And that’s not all! This tree gives us the flavor for root beer and the root makes a great medicinal tea.

What more could you ask of a tree?

But there is one more reason to love this year. Years ago, it was “arrested” as an illegal. It was the base for sarsaparilla! You gotta love this tree.

Now when you drive around looking at the fall colors, there’s one more reason to look for the brilliant one with all the smarts.

Cheers!

— Mary Lou Falkenstein is a resident of Sturgis.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Mary Lou Falkenstein: Color me fall