A champion has fallen in Big Wash, just north of Oro Valley.
The largest soaptree yucca in the United States has lost its almost 30-foot-tall main stem, an extraordinary appendage that earned it the title of national champion.
The bristled stalk used to stand straight up, but it began to stoop in 2020 and broke off completely sometime in the past six months or so.
“It was the drought we had that killed it, I think,” said local resident Clive Probert, who nominated the plant for title consideration eight years ago. “It’s a pity. I’ve never seen one anywhere near that tall.”
Soaptree yuccas are native to the deserts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and northern Mexico, where they typically grow slowly into an evergreen, palm-like shrub or small tree.
The one in the wash west of Oracle Road was declared the largest of its species in 2016 by the nonprofit conservation group American Forests, which created the National Register of Champion Trees in 1940.
The national champion soaptree yucca as it looked on Sept. 12, 2019. The plant in Big Wash between Oro Valley and Catalina once stood roughly 30 feet tall.
Arizona is currently home to about 50 such national champions, the fourth most of any state. Nine of those trees are in Pima County, including the soaptree yucca — at least for the moment.
Alison Faller is state coordinator for Arizona’s Magnificent Trees program. She is also an urban and community forestry specialist with the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
A look at some of Arizona's most magnificent trees.
She said the collapse of the soaptree yucca’s main stem will be noted in state records, but the dethroned plant won’t be forgotten. It will remain on Arizona’s list of current and former record holders. “Nobody gets deleted after they get listed as a champion,” Faller explained.
It’s unclear how or when the yucca’s entry on the national register might be changed. That list is in the midst of a transition, as American Forests hands the database off to the School of Natural Resources at the University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture in Knoxville.
As everyone waits for the national effort to resume, Faller said the state’s Magnificent Trees program continues its work to recognize significant trees around Arizona.
Along with determining state champions based on size, the program catalogs so-called “witness trees” that have been growing in the same spot since before Arizona statehood in 1912 and “heritage trees” with special cultural or historical significance, such as the infamous Jail Tree in Wickenburg where criminals were shackled before a prison was built there.
The state even has an assistance program to help owners care for their listed trees by connecting them with certified arborists or providing as much as $1,000 in financial aid.
State and national champion trees are determined based on a formula that uses height, trunk width and branch “crown” spread to determine the most massive individual from a given species. All woody plants, including saguaros and other cacti, are considered for the list, so long as they grow at least 13 feet tall with a single trunk at least 9 inches in circumference.
The last time the national register was updated in 2021, only Virginia, Florida and Texas had more champion trees than Arizona.
Faller and company accept tree nominations from the public between Dec. 1 and May 31, followed by a verification period that lasts from June 1 through Sept. 15. The updated state register of Magnificent Trees is unveiled each year on Nov. 1.
The program relies heavily on volunteers, both to help verify nominated trees and scour the countryside in search of new specimens worthy of recognition, Faller said. “We call them magnificent tree hunters.”
Anyone can do it. All it takes is an eye for outsized examples from the plant world.
“You could find a new national champion while you’re out on a hike,” Faller said. “It’s a great way to get people outside and looking up at trees and cacti in a new way.”
Probert said he first noticed the champion soaptree yucca while leading outings in Big Wash for the Hiking Club of Sun City Oro Valley.
“It was remarkable,” he said of the plant. “We would detour to go past it.”
The towering yucca so impressed him, Probert decided to bring it to the attention of someone at the University of Arizona. It was that person who introduced him to the state’s Magnificent Trees program and encouraged him to submit a nomination.
When the giant stem broke off, it snapped in two, with the middle section coming to rest on top of what used to be the top of the plant. Before it fell, the national champion yucca could be spotted from passing cars on North Oracle Road, a third of a mile away.
Despite its recent collapse, the yucca in Big Wash isn’t dead. Surrounding its broken central stump are several smaller stalks — none taller than about 8 feet — that still appear to be in good condition.
It’s possible this champion is poised for a comeback, Faller said. “I’m glad the plant lives on to perhaps reach new great heights.”
