That's Texas... if you're out by Big Bend. The center of the state is plateaus and valleys covered in rocky outcroppings and cedar trees. Northeast Texas around Dallas is either prairie or forests full of huge trees- cottonwoods and pecans can grow to impressive size. Eastern Texas is full of sandy soil and pine forests...
It's always struck me as odd that people immediately associate Texas with deserts when only a small part of the state is actually like that.
It's always struck me as odd that people immediately associate Texas with deserts when only a small part of the state is actually like that.
But people tend to be like that in general about places they've never been to or don't know about. They'll take the broadest information about a place and assume that information represents the location's identity in its entirety. I lived in California for a long time, and I've spoken to many people whose only impression of California was that it was a sunny surfing paradise because that's what they saw on TV. Florida might as well be "weird shit and alligators" to the vast majority of non-Floridians. Japan is where anime comes from, everyone from Scotland wears a kilt and plays the bagpipes, and so on.
People tend not to change their minds about things unless directly presented with new and compelling information about them, and a ton of people with (incorrect) passing knowledge on a given place don't know or care any better, and neither do their peers.