No teeth on the margins so probably not a Prunus.

Looks like a variegated ficus benjamina to me...

Yep.

Wow... you guys know your stuff! Looked up images of variegated ficus benjamina and that definetly has the same colorariegat and distinctive leaf shape, and it agrees with the BIL name to some degree... (i.e a banyan). The tropical zone also is in agreement.

Don't have the room for that large of a tree, so pruning will be needed. It's currently planted about 8 feet from a wall and 12 feet from a house. So pruning will be needed in the future or removal.

Do I understand you correctly? Your planting a tropical tree outside next to your house and expect it to survive winter? Am I not understanding something?

Arktrees

Pruning will be completely unnecessary....it will be dead before the end of November. You'll be able to remove it next March.

Ficus in Z5, outside? That's funny.

Well I do agree that a Ficus in Zone 5 would be an expensive annual indeed!!

However, the tree's location, and hence "zone" was disclosed in the pre-amble,"... currently growing in the tropics", and for context, the tree in-situ. It the tallest one in the pic below -to the right of the wheel-barraw and to the left of the blue scaffolding.

{{gwi:40995}}

Now that more context has been provided, I present another mystery plant for your consideration:

I think it's a Corral Tree

Leaf
{{gwi:342975}}

Tree (rather sickly looking, because of heat stress from transplating as a cutting).
{{gwi:342976}}

Actually nothing you wrote said anything about it staying in the tropics, and "currently" implies that will change. That along with you listing Z5 and MA gives zero indication that it was staying in the tropics. As you can see from the replies, nobody else was able to read your mind either.

Arktrees

ark.. under her top pic .... second line... it says it there ...

since it is after the pic.. i wouldnt call it a preamble.. but its there.. i had to go back twice to find it ...

anyway ... the corral tree as you call it.. repot trees when they are dormant [this is from z5.. i have no clue regarding tropical locations] .. or in early fall or spring... the transplant shock shows that you really stressed a fully leafed out tree by repotting or planting it in the heat of the summer ... TIMING is everything when you start fooling with the trees ability to pump water .... in heat .. when in leaf ... hope it all works out.. its a cool tree i never heard of ...

ken

Okay let's start over with more details this time, as I tend to be a rather terse writer by habit of scientific training and left out several important details, which were needed by everybody!!

I live in MA zone 5 (maybe zone 6B), but the plants in question are not in zone 5/MA. Both trees are growing in and will stay in the tropics. None of the plants in the pictres will be coming to MA zone 5 - getting a plant through customs is such a hassle!

Currently (in the tropical location of these trees) it's the hot/rainy season, as opposed to the hot/dry season, so this is the ideal planting time (different latitudes have different agricultural seasons).

My desire is to learn the Latin names of these plants in order to do further research on their growth habits and cultivation. The only information I have about these plants is that they do grow in this environment, as several families in the area own them, and I know their common names. For example the ficus has a local common name of Laurel Pinto.... I can't find that on the internet or in my books.

Unfortunately a common name is to generic to learn more about the plants in question.

It might be helpful to tell us what country they are in so that our guesses might be more accurate.

They are planted in the country of Nicaragua... near sea level.

Nicaragua doesn't have any USDA zone equivalent that I am aware of, as the country is tropical. For tropical locations the altitude is critical (i.e. colder with higher altitue). From what I can gather, the closest equivalent to a USDA zone would be Sunset Zone H2 (ie tropical and at low altitude).

Oh well, I'll try the Oz tree forum... G'day!