Here is another close-up of the leaves

why did she top it???

i am not familiar with FL stuff..

but liquidamber has those type of star shaped leaves ... but i have no clue if anything in that family grows in FL ...

why did she top it??? how can it be that short.. with that big a trunk?????

ken

Hi Ken,

Actually, it is not topped. The trunk is kinda fat and then it tapers. The photo shows it a bit better. The trunk is about 20 ft high. I will look up liquidamber to see which zones it grows in. Thanks for the suggestion...

I'm pretty sure that's a Baobab tree. I've never seen one in person but the leaves and the trunk shape match what I saw on google.

I have a liquidamber and the leaves are more maple-star shaped rather than oleander-star shaped like your tree. Is there any root flare at all at the base? Hard to tell with the sideways picture.

Hi jbraun,

It might be in the same family but I know it's not a boabab only because my family actually has those in pots here in Florida (we're from South Africa and we like our boababs :-) ). You know how boababs are also called the upside down tree because the foilage looks like roots. But the leaves are a little fatter and there aren't branches all along the trunk. But there is a similarity so I can see why you'd guess that. Thanks for trying to help out.

I remember when I came across it one time it only gave the latin name. I'm pretty good remembering common names but the latin didn't stick :-(

Hi ghostlyvision,

I didn't see any rootflare ( I'm assuming root flare refers to when the trunk diameter increases at the bottom of the tree. Is that correct?). This tree sticks straight up. Very unusual.

I think I figured it out. It's a Brachychiton rupestris, also called an Australian Bottle Tree. I still need to confirm but it sure looks like it. Thanks to everyone trying to help out.

Oh wow, I guess there wouldn't be a traditional root flare on that tree. The google image pics are really something, what a cool-looking tree!