Hi
Certainly could be an "elastica " but i suspect it's what is known as a "strangler fig" they will grow in almost ANY situation. Pot is a great place to grow one as they are terrible yard plants lol VERY INVASIVE!! lol
Might be okay as a house plant should be VERY easy gary

Ficus benghalensis is a possibility too. :)

It somehow doesn't have that look of a F. elastica. There are over something like 600 species, so quite a few to choose from. "Stranglers" probably account for nearly half of them. Another name for them is "Curtain Figs".

Ficus benghalensis is the closest match to the leaves that I've found so far.

...Been wrong before though. :)

just looking at pics - benghalensis has a rounded tip, not pointed.
elastica has just one central pronounced vein, no laterals.
but this does look like ficus.
citrifolia (wild banyan tree, native to fl) seems similar. also some banyans look similar. can it self-seed?

don't know where in fl you are.
here's a quote on geographic distribution from unmentionable DG site
This is the only other spp. of ficus native to Florida and the U.S. other than Ficus aurea (Strangler Fig or Golden Fig). This spp., Ficus citrifolia, is native to the tropical hammocks and similar habitats with sunlight in southern Florida, in Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe (including the Keys) and Collier counties, zones 10a south through 11. It is more restricted in distribution and more southernly than the more hardy, also native, Ficus aurea (Strangler Fig), as Ficus citrifolia (this spp.) is more cold-sensitive than Ficus aurea, and is restricted to far southern Florida and the Keys. The only population of this plant recorded in central Florida is in Hillsborough County, zone 9a/9b.

Thank you for the help. I looked up the suggestions and each one resembles mine, but not all the way. I don't know about self seed it's a very young plant still--less than a year. I live in NW Florida.

that's probably too far north for f. citrifolia, so perhaps it's f.aurea. plants.usda.gov lists it as native in the whole state of fl, though other sites say z10-11.

I would chop off the top just above the first branch with more than 3 leaves, then stake that branch to the support as your new leader. If the soil/root mass can't be lifted from the pot intact, it doesn't need repotting. If it can, I would chop off the bottom half of the roots, bare-root, correct potential root problems, and repot into a fast draining, chunky soil based on large particles (like pine bark), and probably situate it in a smaller pot.

Al.

Hi Al!

You wouldn't know what kind this is,would you?

You're something of a ficus grower extraordinaire around these parts...or so I've heard! :)

Have to say undecided (that's a less painful way of saying I don't know). There are many hundreds of species of Ficus. It very well could be F elastica. The plants selected as houseplants are known to have a broader, stiffer, and more upright leaf habit than the wild form of the plant, which is consistent with what we can see in the pic.

Al

I guess I will just leave in a pot outside for now, maybe once it grows larger I will be able to find out what it is for sure. I might plant in in the yard next spring :)