List of state's biggest trees
The first Europeans exploring present West Virginia saw giant trees of oak, maple, sycamore, hemlock, walnut, and tulip poplar. The biggest of the trees grew on deep, rich soils. Some were big enough to elicit individual notice. George Washington's journal from 1770 describes a large sycamore along the lower Kanawha River measuring 45 feet around the trunk.
The present champion is a sycamore near Viola in Marshall County, with a circumference of 311 inches, which makes it more nearly 26 feet around. At 117 feet tall, it is not the tallest, however. That honor goes to a towering yellow poplar standing 173 feet tall in Nicholas County.
Following is a list of the largest trees of 25 species common to West Virginia:
| Species | Circumference
(inches) | Height
(feet) | County |
| American basswood | 151 | 78 | Jefferson |
| American beech | 168 | 94 | Fayette |
| Bigtooth aspen | 91 | 123 | Pocahontas |
| Black birch | 97 | 94 | Pendleton |
| Black cherry | 189 | 98 | Randolph |
| Blackgum | 189 | 131 | Marion |
| Black locust | 173 | 78 | Preston |
| Black oak | 210 | 94 | Mineral |
| Black walnut | 202 | 64 | Berkeley |
| Boxelder | 140 | 60 | Wood |
| Chestnut oak | 216 | 96 | Upshur |
| Cucumbertree | 216 | 25 | Berkeley |
| Northern red oak | 272 | 106 | Ohio |
| Red maple | 144 | 115 | Randolph |
| Scarlet oak | 211 | 110 | Jackson |
| Shagbark hickory | 83 | 94 | Summers |
| Sourwood | 85 | 98 | Wayne |
| Sugar maple | 199 | 108 | Jefferson |
| Sycamore | 311 | 117 | Marshall |
| Virginia pine | 125 | 65 | Monongalia |
| White ash | 205 | 108 | Mercer |
| White oak | 244 | 89 | Tucker |
| White pine | 140 | 138 | Greenbrier |
| Yellow buckeye | 204 | 130 | Nicholas |
| Yellow poplar | 213 | 88 | Nicholas |
Source: Big Tree Program, West Virginia Department of Commerce
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