This is a tree in west central Florida near the Gulf. I have been trying for a while to identify this tree, but with no luck. I hope someone might be able to help. Thanks.

Wow! That's a very interesting araingment of the branches coming of the trunk. A big clue in the ID process. Hmmm. .....2hrs later. I'm stumped.

It's like the tree is obsessive compulsive and has to have its branches in a line....can't wait to hear what this one is

Was this tree on someone;s property? or in a botanical garden? or growing in the wild?

Each one of those "branches" is a single, doubly compound leaf.
(Except for that little stub in the bottom left of the second photo that is out of focus. That one is a branch.)

I have been searching with the term bi-pinnately compound leaf in every combination I could think off. No branches. All odd. Some fibonacci sequence in the leaves with only one at any level horizontally but in four ranks vertically in a very well ordered spiral around the trunk.

Welcome, Clay!

The leaves remind me of aspen leaves, even though I typically associate aspen with drier regions... I'm searching 'columnar aspen' with various other search terms to see if I find anything.

Leftwood- do you think it's a stalk, not a trunk?

Claybyrd: What does the base of the "tree" look like?

The tree appears to not be able to grow anything out of place. The small stub looks to me like another leaf forming out of the same hole as a previously fallen leaf/branch. I will have to have a closer look at the base; it is covered by tall grass. This could have been an old village or yard because of the debris around, so it is hard to say if it is wild. But, I have not seen anything like this growing anywhere else. Another thing about it, is it has 4 sets of the leaves perfectly spaced on each side from top to bottom just like the 2 sets that are visible in the picture.

I'm working on this, it doesn't look real!

I found something interesting on google books but I'm not sure if it helps. Under the heading of "Adaptive significance of compound leaves"

https://books.google.co.uk/boo...

Wow, this tree has me completely stumped.

Maybe this is a clue, the Devil's Walking stick with huge compound leaves attached to the stem, the leaves look very similar.

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

Janet, I too thought it looked fake. Almost like a camera or cell tower disguised as a tree. In AZ, they put cameras inside fake cactus along the road. But the leaves on this tree were what threw me, because they do look real.

Close to Heteropanax fragrans ..

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

http://www.greenworld-nursery....

Alyssa, on close study it does look real but unreal!

This is so unusual! @AlyssaBlue, I also thought of the fake cell tower trees, but it looks much to real, and there's no tower! I know you all will figure it out. I've never seen anything like it.

I really appreciate the help with this. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is an unusual plant. Please let me know if I can provide anymore information or pictures. It is raining like crazy here, so it may be a while before I will be able to get pictures of the base so it can be determined if it has a stalk or trunk. There are some juveniles in the area I can take pics of if it will help. Also there are no thorns on this plant.

I hope your rain will stop soon. It would be interesting to see the base. I'm going to suggest that @Dutchlady1 takes a look at this. She may have some ideas about it.

Claybird, do all the plants have that unusually symmetrical branch arrangement?

sooby - do all the plants have that unusually symmetrical branch arrangement?
Yes they do.

CLAYBYRD said:Yes they do.

That is so strange. I really want to know what this is now. Curiouser and curiouser.