Obviously I know next to nothing about Florida trees but don’t those leaves, twigs and spiny stem seem remniscent of some kind of citrus? Was the site perhaps originally an orchard?

No expert but my first thought was a bay laurel.

tj

Looks like a Citrus sp. to me too.

Does not look like Laurus.

If by bay laurel Laurus nobilis is indicated, no, it’s not that. No spines on that, for a start.

Ask a worker. I've found they're usually very happy to tell you about the trees and stuff. Every now and then, I've been offered cuttings for free.

Crush a leaf between your fingers and smell it. If citrus, it will be very obvious with one sniff.

Leaves do look like something in the citrus realm to me.

Maybe some kind of volunteer?

If it is a citrus, it's looking unusually healthy for FL. So many citrus trees have been infected with greening disease here. I do spy what looks like some greening damage on those leaves. The trunks look like it may have been cut down and regrew...?

Kanapaha Gardens was established in the late 1970’s, but I can’t find any info on previous use of property. I did’t think to crush a leaf, but I will make a mental note of this for future reference.

Could it be Poncirus?

Here’s another tree that wasn’t labeled.

The second one look like a kauri - Agathis sp.

The branching doesn't look quite right for kauri but then, I'm no expert. :-)

From what I understand nageia n. is pretty rare in S. Florida but does exist there.

If the possible Citrus is in fact one of those it could have gotten on the site as a rootstock. The other does look like an Agathis.

I concur! lol

I used a plant id app to help figure it out, but it's pretty iffy sometimes.

nageia nagi is said to have been quite popular years ago in central Fla. but demand has fallen off greatly for many years now.

My app did show citrus of some sort on the first plant in question.

Yes Bill is right it is nageia nagi

Unfortunately as Bill said I haven't seen it planted in commercial or residential plantings well ever really but I have seen it growing at both leu and mead gardens in Orlando and I believe it was even self seeding at mead. A very underrated plant for this area.

What tipped the scales for me to choose nageia was the 'loosely pyramidal' growth habit in the description that I found, which was absent in the descriptions for the other plants.

The picture maackia posted fit that (along with the other characteristics).

Again, I'm not an expert. :-)

Nageia nagi (ナギ naki) description (conifers.org)

Thank you all for your help. It does look like Nageia is the second tree. I’ll have to be content not knowing the first, but will revisit if/when I get back there. Many citrus trees were flowering during my visit, with the fragrance being delightful. It is sad to learn of the disease issues the citrus industry is faced with, and considering Florida’s growth, I suspect many groves will be replaced with houses.

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens was previously owned and used by the city's waste water treatment plant for processing effluent. There never was a citrus orchard there. The stream and pond west of the camellia garden, which should have been full of blooms, is a newer effluent processing demo project. That pond is where the director of horticulture had his arm ripped off by an alligator.