Historical Period: 20th Century (1900 & Later)
Historical Topic: Odds & Ends, Pecan-Our State Tree
Species: Pecan (Carya illinoinensis)
County: San Saba
Public Access: No
What’s in a nut? Plenty if you’re the Jumbo Hollis Pecan. At its peak, this tree produced the largest pecan nuts in the world, weighing in at 33 pecans to the pound (most are 70–80 per pound). This unusual achievement was featured in Robert L. Ripley’s Believe It Or Not column. Today the tree’s legacy lives on—many popular varieties are now derived from the Jumbo Hollis (and another Famous Tree, the San Saba Mother Pecan, discussed in the last chapter).
The Jumbo Hollis was a world-record holder for size and quantity of nuts in 1882, and its sizable pecans were also on display at the New Orleans Exposition in 1884. But its claim-to-fame didn’t end there: the Jumbo Hollis went on to win the bronze medal at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and notably, in 1910, the Queen of England wrote a letter of appreciation to the owner, praising the quality of pecans after receiving a shipment. A nut sample from this tree, collected in 1928 by one-time owner John C. Morris, continues to be a part of a collection at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.
The name Jumbo Hollis refers to both the tree’s uncommonly large fruit and its first recorded owner, Thomas I. Hollis, an early settler and storekeeper in the community of Bend. The wild seedling was discovered on the Hollis farm growing on the Colorado River bottom.
The tree was first propagated by San Saba resident E. E. Risien around 1884. Nursery propagation under the name Hollis began around 1900, when buds were sent across the state and grafted onto other pecan trees. Grafting and nursery stock helped to widely disseminate the original tree stock for many years.
The year the 36th Texas Legislature made the pecan the official state tree (1919) also happened to be the record year for the Jumbo Hollis—it produced 1,015 pounds of nuts.