Wish I could help

The leaves show tri-pennation? I've been looking in that direction. It looks rather prehistoric. A close up of the leaf scar would be good along with the root of a young one if that's possible. The sheathing at the leaf junctions needs a good look. A shot of the leaf top and bottom would be best. All good for the DB when it's ID'd. Somewhere in Araliaceae I think.

I thought it looked prehistoric too, but I don't know when in evolution pinnately compound leaves would have first appeared. The tree Janet mentioned as being close, Heteropanax fragrans, is in the Araliaceae. I looked at some pics of it but it didn't seem to typically have the precise branching. It doesn't sound like that branching is from human intervention either since there are various age trees and they all have it. Very interesting!

Heteropanax fragrans does have a similar uniform leaf structure, just not quite the same!

http://b2b.hc360.com/viewPics/...

Leave it to Florida to be holding on to a rare prehistoric plant that no one can ID.

Leaves nearly always alternate (opposite only in Cheirodendron); spiral, or distichous (rarely), or four-ranked (rarely); commonly leathery; petiolate (usually), or subsessile; more or less sheathing (usually), or non-sheathing.

http://www.anbg.gov.au/angio/a...

Some genera there to check out!

In the original picture, the leaflets look opposite, are the leaves opposite as well, depending on which is the rachis?

Clay, I'm in west central Florida near the Gulf too. Where exactly is this tree? County, city even would help.

The location might give us a clue to its ID. eg. east of I75 is colder in winter, barrier islands are warmer etc.

My first thought was that someone had grafted the tree to look like that but the cell tower makes more sense.
Here are two examples:

https://twistedsifter.files.wo...

http://www.waymarking.com/waym...

I've checked out the terminology.

Distichous phyllotaxis, also called "two-ranked leaf arrangement" is a special case of either opposite or alternate leaf arrangement where the leaves on a stem are arranged in two vertical columns on opposite sides of the stem.

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

In botany, phyllotaxis or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem (from Ancient Greek phýllon "leaf" and táxis "arrangement"). Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature

https://www.google.co.uk/searc...

So, it would follow that "four-ranked" is the same as distichous except there's 4 vertical columns instead of 2.

greene said:My first thought was that someone had grafted the tree to look like that but the cell tower makes more sense

Hopefully when it stops raining, we can get more pics. From these pictures it does not appear to show any signs of climbing rungs, antennae, etc. That was what I very first looked for. We have a few cell tower trees around Corpus as well. Some are fairly realistic looking. We also have fake trees to attract eagle roosting for bird watching as well.

dyzzypyxxy said:Clay, I'm in west central Florida near the Gulf too. Where exactly is this tree? County, city even would help.

The location might give us a clue to its ID. eg. east of I75 is colder in winter, barrier islands are warmer etc.

It is in Palmetto, FL and is less than a 1/2 mile to the coast.

JamesAcclaims said:

Hopefully when it stops raining, we can get more pics. From these pictures it does not appear to show any signs of climbing rungs, antennae, etc. That was what I very first looked for. We have a few cell tower trees around Corpus as well. Some are fairly realistic looking. We also have fake trees to attract eagle roosting for bird watching as well.

Not sure if you missed my post about this, but there are juveniles in the area that have the same growth patterns.

After enlarging the image I can see what appears to be a security camera or light.

Maybe for hunting? Or trespassers? I keep looking at those leaves and thinking they look opposite no matter how multi-pinnate they are. According to Janet's information that would rule ot most Araliaceae.

What type of land is this on? Private, public?

Good eye, Greene. It really does look like a camera or light.

When you go back out there to take photos please take pictures of the base of the tree. And if the tree is on someone's property, please knock on the door and tell the owner that all of us are curious.

Edited to add:
Can you also get the GPS coordinates?

CLAYBYRD said:Not sure if you missed my post about this, but there are juveniles in the area that have the same growth patterns.

I saw the post I was responding to Greene.

greene said:After enlarging the image I can see what appears to be a security camera or light.

That is a new growth. Like I said, they only come out of the same locations as fallen leaves.

plantmanager said:What type of land is this on? Private, public?

Good eye, Greene. It really does look like a camera or light.

It is private, but no one lives there, nor do I know who owns it. With some digging I could find out, but I am doubtful they would know what is growing there. It is very wooded and overgrown.