The monarchy.

Long ago perhaps in the spring of 500 B.C., a seed fell a cone in the branches of a tree in the Sierra Nevada. It fluttered diagonally downward and landed on the forest floor in a most propitious spot.

None of the other 400,000 seeds shed by that tree that year were nearly as lucky. This special seed landed in loose mineral soil with just the right amount of moisture, light, heat, and nutrients. It germinated, lucked out with the weather, escaped the mandibles of camel crickets, resisted fungal attacks, and began to grow. Meanwhile, 8,000 miles to the east, a man in Greece had an insight: the only thing in the universe that endures is change.

Fast forward 2,500 years to the present time to see that both the seed in California and the man from Greece have changed and yet, albeit in a different form, have also endured. The man, who was called Heraclitus, is long dead but his teachings live on. The cells of that seed also died long ago but the giant sequoia it became - we call it General Sherman - has become the largest tree in the world and is still growing. It has been a champion tree since AMERICAN FORESTS began its National Register of Big Trees in 1940. Three other champs from that year have, to date, also beaten Heraclitus dictum that all things must change: the Rocky Mountain juniper, western juniper, and white oak.

Like the king-of-king General Sherman, they too are famous enough to merit their own name: the Bennett Juniper, the Jardine Juniper, and the Wye Oak. But a trip through this new Register proves that, in the end, there's no beating Heraclitus.

The current list of 825 champion trees representing 687 species is close to the total (840 champs, 704 species) for the last National Register of Big Trees, published two years ago. However, this list of elite trees is, to paraphrase Emerson, like a changing cloud which is always and yet never the same. We welcome 139 new champions - representing 125 different species - to the royal arboreal family. In the process, we salute 140 now-dethroned champions. Following are some highlights of the new order.

Several new champions are actually former titleholders that have regained their crowns. A former champion Arizona walnut near Elgin, Arizona, was reinstated after the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico, tree that beat it in 1987 was reassessed under the multistem rule. (If a tree forks below 4 1/2 feet, the circumference is measured on the largest single stem above that level. The New Mexico tree forks right from the ground.)

In 1992 Hurricane Andrew wiped out many national champions in south Florida, but the report of the death of the biggest false-mastic was, as Mark Twain would say, greatly exaggerated. Apparently the 247-point tree in Dade County's Castellow Hammock Park survived the storm intact and now, perhaps indignantly, takes back its stolen crown from a 179-point-tree in Ft. Lauderdale.

The range in size of the 139 new champs almost matches the limits of what a tree can be. On the lower end of the sale, the svelte, 30-point lorebush of Mercedes,Texas, is just inches thicker and one foot taller than the 3-inch diameter, 13-foot-tall defining limit of a tree, set forth in Elbert Little's Checklist of U.S. Trees, Native and Naturalized, which is AMERICAN FORESTS' chosen authority for the Register. Twelve other new champs weigh in with fewer than 45 points, none topping 25 feet. As you might expect, with names like lorebush, hopbush, scarletbush, and spicebush, most of these species are actually shrubs that occasionally reach tree size.

But even the smallest of the biggest deserves recognition. In fact, the discovery of the 56-point Wright silktassel in Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona, is forcing Little to add that species to his list of bona fide trees for North America!

On the other end of the spectrum of new big trees is a Fremont cottonwood in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. For a broad-leaved tree, it's a monster, with a girth that spans 42 feet. Its 623 points may not seem like much compared to the General Sherman's 1,300 but consider this: Only 11 species, including the giant sequoia, rank higher. And if the current champion sycamore were to be remeasured under the multi-stem rule, there's a chance its 737 points would decrease drastically, making the Fremont cottonwood number 11 overall. In terms of trunk diameter - the measurement most easily perceived by big tree gawkers - this champ's 13.4 feet are bested by only six other species. By girth, it may be the largest flowering tree in the U.S.

The newest members of the class of 1998 include 10 other champions that exceed 400 points. Three of them - a ponderosa pine in the Trinity Alps Wilderness of northern California, a grand fir in Redwoods National Park, and a southern red oak in Upson County, Georgia - tip the scales at more than 500 points - an honor shared by only 30 other species. The grand fir is also the tallest new champ, soaring to 257 feet. Only the champions of the coast Douglas-fir (329 feet), coast redwood (313 feet), giant sequoia (275 feet), and none fir (272 feet) reach higher. The 501-point new champion southern red oak has a crown spread of 156 feet, enough to shade seven tennis courts.

Like Olympic athletes, most new champions edged out the former frontrunners by a slim margin. But surprisingly, after nearly 60 years of searching by both casual and devoted big tree hunters, there are still some giants that revise our concept of just how big a certain kind of tree can grow. A longbeak eucalyptus in Pinal County, Arizona, humbled the former champ by 115 points, almost all of them coming from its hefty 28-foot girth. The new Rocky Mountain ponderosa pine in Montana embarrassed a Colorado champ by 117 points by being more than a third larger in both height and circumference. The prize for most improved statistics goes to the new Arkansas oak champ in Mississippi, which bested an Alabama tree by a whopping 166 points!

Not all new champions are bigger than their predecessors. Sometimes an old champ dies and the crown passes to its nearest competitor. In Washington state, the throne of a recently dead 160-point Sitka willow was filled by an upstart 58-point tree. Ten other new champions have some growing to do to catch up to the greatness of their predecessors.

The 139 new champion trees are spread out among 22 states, although 90 percent are found in just 10 states. Not too surprisingly, the three with the most new champions have a large degree of uniqueness to their tree flora. At number one with 30 new champs. Arizona has the advantage of near exclusivity on many species that are only otherwise found in Mexico or the other southern border states (see Measuring Arizona, page 50). Florida, the number one state two years ago, came in second with 20 successful challengers. A large number of subtropical trees, including 12 of the new champs, have a toehold on the southern part of the state, giving Florid's big tree hunters a monopoly on those species. California is often called an ecological island because many species, including five of the 17 new champion trees, are isolated from the rest of the continent by the Siskiyou, Cascade, and Sierra Nevada mountains.

One other region stands out this year. In the Southeast, eight states combined to contribute 68 new champs with Florida (20), North Carolina (13), Mississippi (12), Georgia (11), and Tennessee (8) accounting for most of them. Within this area is a place that, primarily through the recent efforts of Will Blozan, has become something of a Big Tree Mecca. In the last two years, Blozan, a biological technician with the National Park Service, has played a primary role in the discovery of nine new champions in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This brings the park's current total to 21 national champions, all but three nominated or co-nominated by Blozan. The Smokies have a lot more potential for champions, he says, because they contain some of the largest blocks of old-growth in the East and are situated in the southern Appalachians, where diversity and rainfall are high and the growing season is long.

Some 140 trees have lost their crowns since 1996, most due simply to the discovery of a bigger specimen. A few, like a ponderosa pine in Deschutes, Oregon, and a redbay in Randolf City, Georgia, lost points due to storm damage, allowing challengers to usurp their throne. At least 27 old monarchs died of natural causes like windstorms, lightning, fire, and disease.

Some champion trees have been ousted on the basis of technicalities. In addition to the Arizona walnut already mentioned, nine other trees were dethroned because of the multi-stem rule. One was the formerly 342-point bitternut hickory in Lake Accotink,Virginia. Meanwhile, the former champion red hickory in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee was exposed as a bitternut hickory by big tree hunter Blozan. At 298 points it might have saved face by assuming the bitternut hickory throne but was instead edged out by a 318-point tree also found in the Smokies by - who else? - Will Blozan. He also located the real red hickory champion.

The roughleaf velvetseed on Totten Key, Florida, at only 8 feet, failed to measure up to the definition of a tree. Others were stripped of their royal status because they were found to be hybrids, ornamentals, or no longer accepted as a valid species or variety. One former champion, Runyon's esenbeckia in Cameron County, Texas, was grown from a seed gathered before the species became extinct in the wild. But scientists don't always agree on what constitutes a species. Some are "splitters" who recognize fine distinctions between species, while others are "lumpers" who tend to use a broader brush. In this case Elbert Little, AMERICAN FORESTS' authority on taxonomic matters, is a lumper and says that Runyon's esenbeckia is only a slight variation of the Berlandier esenbeckia. The consolation prize for the Texas tree is that AMERICAN FORESTS now accepts it as the champion Berlandier esenbeckia.

As you can see on page 57, there are 136 species that still have no champion (hint, hint). For some, like the western dogwood that was blown down in a storm, there was simply no champion to replace it. Others, like the willow hawthorn, Mackenzie willow, and yellow-elder, have never had a champion to represent their species. In any case, few trees in the current champion list can be proved to be the biggest; they are just the biggest found so far.

So check out your favorite species, review the rules for measuring a tree (page 13), and head outdoors. With little more effort than strolling through the woods, you just might make a discovery that puts a tree - and your name - in the National Register of Big Trees for the year 2000.

THE heirs apparent

BIGGEST OVERALL (POINTS)

1. Giant sequoia                         1300
2. Coast redwood                         1205
3. Western redcedar                       931
Western redcedar                          924
4. Sitka spruce                           922
Sitka spruce                              902
5. Coast Douglas-fir                      782

OLDEST (ESTIMATED YEARS)

1. Western juniper                       4000
2. Giant sequoia                         2500
3. Rocky Mountain juniper                1500
4. Intermountain bristlecone pine        1500

STATES WITH MOST CHAMPS
(number of champions and co-champions)

1. Florida                                151
2. California                              86
3. Texas                                   76
4. Arizona                                 58
5. Michigan                                56

TALLEST (FEET)

1. Coast Douglas-fir                      329
2. Coast redwood                          313
3. Giant sequoia                          275
4. Noble fir                              272
5. Grand fir                              257

BIGGEST CIRCUMFERENCE (INCHES)

1. Giant sequoia                          998
2. Coast redwood                          867
3. Western redcedar                       761
Western redcedar                          732
4. Sitka spruce                           707
Sitka spruce                              673
5. Common baldcypress                     644

BIGGEST CROWN SPREAD (FEET)

1. Pecan                                  159
2. Southern red oak                       156
3. Coast live oak                         150
4. Swamp chestnut oak                     148
5. White willow                           142
Golden willow                             142

Whit Bronaugh, a photojournalist from Arlington, Washington, was recently honored for his wildlife photography by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Whit's work has graced the pages of the National Register since 1990.