Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Of course, but that is an awfully broad question!   As the Wildflower Center has a goal of encouraging the local native species, I am going to narrow this by listing trees considered native to Sugarland but which have comparatively large leaves.

Our list of native species is found from a special link in our Recommended Species page, and specifically, you live in the Gulf Marshes & Prairies ecoregion.  

With a smaller list to be considered – They can be examined for leaf size.  Mr Smarty Plants used the comments in the NPIN database and also from the University of Connecticut plant database. Records in this database explicitly shows leaf size in the search results.  There is a final complication to be considered.  Leafs are separated as to whether they are “simple” or “compound”.  North Dakota State University has a pictorial description of this. Often, the compound leaves are discussed as the whole, which gives a much larger number.  Sometimes, the leaflets are also described.

That said, here is a list of trees with large leaves:

Simple Leaves:

Magnolia grandiflora (Southern magnolia):  They have a dense growth of smooth, leathery evergreen leaves that are alternate, 5–10 inches long, 2" to 5" wide.

Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore) : Simple ovate leaves, 3 to 5 lobed margins, 6" to 10" long.

Quercus macrocarpa (Bur oak):  Leaves up to 9 inches long with a central midrib from which branch veins lead into rounded lobes.

Morus rubra (Red mulberry): Leaves up to 8 inches long, ovate and with or without lobes.

Liquidambar styraciflua (Sweetgum):  Alternate "maple-like" star shaped leaves, 5- to 7- lobed, 4 to 8" long and wide.

Diospyros virginiana (Common persimmon): Large, oval, mature leaves usually become yellow-green in fall, 2" to 6" long.

Quercus stellata (Post oak): Leaf blades variable, 3 to 5 inches long or longer, wavy margined to deeply lobed; the lobes rounded and up to 4 on each side.

Prunus mexicana (Mexican plum): Leaves up to 5 inches long and 2 inches wide, ovate to narrower with serrate margins.

Compound Leaves:

Juglans nigra (Black walnut): Leaves up to 2 feet long with 5 to 11 pairs of leaflets along a central axis and a single-leaflet at the tip, leaflets are up to 5" long.

Carya illinoinensis (Pecan): Pinnately-compound, deciduous leaves are 12-20 in. long with 11-17 leaflets.

Fraxinus pennsylvanica (Green ash): Leaves up to 8 or more inches long, divided into 5 to 9 1eaflets, which are 2" to 5" with smooth or toothed margins.

Aesculus pavia var. pavia (Scarlet buckeye): Large leaves with 5 leaflets radiating from the tip of a long petiole, each 2" to 5" in length.