What is the texture of the leaves ?

The texture is ”tiny”. Each needle is no more than 5mm: too small to feel anything for my rough hands. Maybe very lightly hirsute and rigid.

I am no expert on the 800+ species of Erica but it doesn't look like any Erica I have seen. And the morphology doesn't seem to fit ether.

My first thought was some sort of Lycopodium but those leaves appear too fleshy for that.

tj

So the leaves are stiff rather than soft or succulent?

A Florida nursery - how about a funky Eastern Red Cedar seedling?

It reminded me of Banksia ericifolia.

It also looks like it's been very wet, which Banksia would not like at all.

Yes, the needles are stiff. Yes, they have been growing it in stuff like it came in with: wet peat/perlite like for the other tropical carnivors. they thought it might be a lycopodium also, I convinced him otherwise while I was there, I think.

Are any of the stems branched? It looks like there are only basal shoots from a single point and the (limited) lycopodiums I'm familiar with don't form a basal clump and develop creeping rootstock instead.

Do the leaves have a resinous scent when crushed?

I dont think that there were any branches yet. I don’t have access to the plant anymore to see if it has a scent. Good thought, though.