Lone Star Elite: In Texas, when they say everything is bigger, they're talking about their trees, too. Naturally.

In Texas, so they say, everything is BIG. And the trees there are no exception. The Lone Star state has 69 national champions, more than any other state except California and Florida. Among the champs: the biggest Texas ash, Texas persimmon, Texas buckeye, Texas sophora, Texas lignumvitae, Texas paloverde, Texas hercules-club, Texas redbud, Texas mulberry, Texas oak, and Texas live oak. Naturally.

Now you might be thinking that Texas only has the biggest of these trees because, within the U.S., they are found only in Texas and, therefore, deserve to be called a Texas so-and-so. And you would be right, but only for half of them. The other half are also found in up to 14 other states. On top of all this, in a recent field guide, the ebony blackbead is called the Texas ebony, and the little walnut is referred to as the Texas walnut. Guess where their champion trees are found? Naturally.

Yes, Texas is the second largest state in the country, but only 11 percent of it is forested--an area smaller than South Carolina. What it lacks in forests it more than makes up for in diversity. Texas has about 250 species of native trees, which represent about one-third of the native silva in America.

A significant reason for this diversity is due to the state's southern extensions. For most groups of organisms, including trees, species number increases the closer you get to the equator. Texas has about 25 trees that it shares only with Latin America. Another 35 or so are found in Texas, Mexico, and one or two other states. When it comes to finding the biggest of these, Texas has a major advantage.

The state's size and location are Important because its 760-mile breadth embraces the western extent of many eastern trees and the eastern extent of many western trees. For example, the champion black tupelo grows in Wood County, near the western edge of its range, which extends east to Florida and Maine. The biggest honey mesquite grows in Real County, not far from the eastern edge of its range, which covers the Southwest to California. The 800-mile north-south axis of Texas has a similar overlap.

The southern limit of quaking aspen, which ranges to north of the Arctic Circle, is in the Chisos Mountains of Texas. The range of the huisache doesn't extend much farther north than the champion at the Atascosa County Jail in southcentral Texas, but southward it's native all the way down to Chile.

When it comes to North American tree diversity, Texas is more than a slice of the pie with local flavor. It's a smorgasbord of tastes from near and far. A survey of Texas champs makes a nice sampler.

Eastern Texas has about 12 national champion trees, most of which range east through at least the Gulf states. The standout is the black tupelo, which also has the distinction of being the third largest champ in Texas. Most of its 362 points come from its nearly 20-foot girth, although, at 110 feet, it is Texas' tallest champion. That height is unusual because older black tupelos tend to die back from the top. Just when they are reaching kingsized girths, they start losing their royal height.

Since the release of the 2000 National Register of Big Trees, Texas lost only five champions to contenders from other states, but, for Texans, the greatest loss was the pecan, the Texas state tree.

The former champ continues to grow next to a small creek on a farm near Weatherford. Until dethroned by a 431-point Tennessee tree, it was the second largest champion in Texas, with 378 points. The pecan is practically an orchard by itself and is the epitome of what a big tree should look like: a massive trunk that would take 11 people, shoulder to shoulder, to surround; a lofty height to match a nine-story building; and a crown that could shade the equivalent of four tennis courts.

In the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Big Tree hunters mostly compete with each other--not other states or even with the rest of Texas. All of this region's 15 national champions are found in Cameron and Hidalgo counties at the southern tip of the state. Except for the saffron-plum bumelia, which is also found in Florida, all these trees are, within the U.S., exclusive to southern Texas. The biggest champ in this area, and the second largest in Texas, is the Montezuma baldcypress, with 375 points. This majestic and beautiful tree grows on the banks of a resaco, an old but still water-filled cut-off of the Rio Grande, near San Benito.

At the risk of overshadowing such an impressive tree and slighting the pride of Texans, it can't be left unsaid that this is the same species as the national tree of Mexico. There it is most famously represented by the "Tule Cypress" in Santa Maria del Tule, near Oaxaca. That 2,000-year-old tree is often touted as having the world's largest diameter--56 feet--more than twice that of the General Sherman giant sequoia.

On AMERICAN FORESTS' Big Tree scale it would weigh in at about 2,300 points, 1,000 more than our biggest national champion! With that kind of growth potential, the San Benito tree could someday become a champion of the ages.

Two other big champs in the Lower Rio Grande region are the Berlandier ash, an enviable backyard tree in Los Fresnos with 319 points, and the ebony blackbead, an evergreen legume with 241 points. The remaining 12 champions in this area are all much smaller, with an average of 79 points, but to the trained eye, they are the giants of their kind.

Moving to the Edwards Plateau and Hill Country of central Texas, we find another 17 giants both large and small. The biggest Texas live oak, in the Rio Frio Valley, is the tree everybody wishes was in their yard. It looks like it was imagined by a fairy tale writer.

Its spreading crown, more than two times the tree's 42-foot height, reaches to the ground like an oversized umbrella. The main trunk is short but massive enough to support several tree-sized limbs, one of which is horizontal and big enough to walk along for 32 feet. Early settlers of the town of Rio Frio used this tree as a bearing point to survey the town and held many a meeting under the protective dome of this venerable oak.

Not far from the biggest Texas live oak is the biggest honey mesquite. As anyone who has traveled across Texas knows, mesquite covers much of the state like a thorny blanket due to a long history of overgrazing and fire suppression.

Field guides say that honey mesquite grows to just 20 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter, and most people would call it a shrub or small tree. Obviously, they've never seen the champion, festooned with hundreds of air plants and mistletoe and soaring to 55 feet with a trunk more than 4 feet in diameter.

In San Antonio stands a tree that hundreds see every day but few notice, much less remember, while 10 feet away is a building they will never forget. The tree and building are small compared to the towering pecans and skyscrapers nearby. But from early school days, we are all taught to remember the lopsided battle that took place there between 187 Texans and Santa Ana's army of 4,000. For visitors, the Alamo is unforgettable, but if they only knew how big most Roemer cat claws are, they would remember the little tree as well because it's the biggest Roemer catclaw of all.

One other central Texas tree deserves special mention because it plays a crucial role in the survival of an endangered bird, the golden-cheeked warbler. This pretty little black and white bird with a yellow face breeds only in certain Texas woodlands with mature Ashe junipers. It depends on loose strips of this tree's bark for its primary nesting material. If it had grown up in the right woodland, the 207-point champion in New Braunfels, Texas, could have been the home improvement superstore for many a homeless golden-cheeked warbler.

Our tour of the Big Trees of Texas ends in the Trans-Pecos region of the western wedge of the state, where 18 national champions are rooted. Among them are the nation's biggest smallest oak (Mohr oak, 60 points), champions whose range is confined to the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park (Chisos oak and Chisos hophornbeam), and our rarest juniper--the drooping juniper--whose U.S. distribution is also confined to the Chisos Mountains.

Last, but the opposite of least, is the champion Rio Grande cottonwood in the Davis Mountains. If any tree in Texas has royal sap in its xylem and phloem it's this one. It has more points (489), a thicker trunk (nearly 10 feet), and a broader crown (120 feet) than any other Texas champion. Even the bark is impressive, with furrows 6 inches deep and a burl 5 feet across. It appears so solid and firmly rooted in the ground that it seems as if a giant could grab the truck and lift the world.

Texans have little hope of surpassing California or Florida in the Big Tree stakes, but they're not worries about losing their number three ranking. If Arizona jumps ahead, it will be easy for Texans to find champions for the empty thrones of the Texas hawthorn, Texas forestiera, Texas kidneywood, and Texas pistache. Naturally.

White Bronaugh writes and photographs from his home in Eugene, Oregon. Naturally.