OK, I'm scoobied. This was a thank you gift, which is great and all, and it fits with the general bizarre kind of thing I generally enjoy, I just tend to prefer to know what it is I'm growing so it will actually survive... I have no clue on this, and I'm even just guessing that it's a pine of some kind. This is in a short 5-gallon pot, the tree itself is 27" from the soil to the point, and, this is where I'm really out of my league, this thing is 1" diameter at the base, with a wig of 16" - 18" needles all the way up to the point where it's starting to branch out (3 branches in triangular fashion, each 1/2" diameter). This thing goes against everything I know (which is ferns, bamboo, and primitive conifers). Hopefully the Pine lads here will be able to peg this pretty easily. It's certainly distinctive enough, I'll wager someone will peg it pretty quickly. Thanks all!
Would help to add the bloody photos... Also, the needles from the wig are rather ovoid in cross section, with a median ridge making them a bit triangular, if that helps at all. I've also attached a photo of the growing tip, which looks to be composed of much shorter, though equally as thick needles of about 1/2" - 3/4" long. The area between the branching point and the tip seems to be a fairly sharp transition from these 16" wig hairs below to about 3" above. No idea if they'll get just as long, but that's why I'm here! The lot seems to be fairly soft, actually, and there also seems to be a kind of powdery orange/brown bloom within the layers of needles. Thanks again!
Yep, Pinus palustris (Longleaf Pine). Here's a better info page: http://www.conifers.org/pi/pin/palustris.htm
