My GF's mom has a tree in her yard I can't identify. From a distance it looks like a pine:



but up close it doesn't have needles, those are small scaly branches:



My guess is it's non-native, probably Japanese, as the gardener who designed / did the landscaping was Japanese.

Any idea what it is called?

Edit to add: it's in the LA basin at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains if that says something about climate.

I'm curious to learn what that is. Never seen that before.

Cedar of some sort.

Fir

Monkey Puzzle tree.

I think it is a Coast Araucaria. They are native to New Caledonia. A type of conifer.

Cryptomeria japonica spiralis.

The Monkey Puzzle trees I am familiar with are much thinner than shown in the pic. Something like this.



This is a Coast Araucaria which looks much more similar to me as in the OP's pic.

You may be correct. It does look a bit closer to me.

Looks a lot like a Norfolk pine.

You pay a mint for one as they are very desirable...and extremely messy.



SCRATCH THAT...I looked at the branch. We have one at the local park and if it is one of those they are protected here and have a massive pine cone that is heavy and dangerous to be under.
Monkey nut tree.

I think this is it ^^^
I'd be happy calling it "Japanese Cedar"

Where at. It looks like a Norfolk Island Pine I think. It's a warm weather pine. cannot get colder than 34 or so. Son and DIL gave us one in a pot for Christmas. I'm in the process of murdering it at present.

Put it somewhere that you don't need tidy, a glorious long lived tree but messy.



There are two over the river at Bishops Lodge, over a hundred years old and big. I don't recall them having spikes on the limbs like the Monkey Nut tree.

Los Angeles basin / couple hundred feet elevation up into the edge of the San Gabriel Mountains. (Town of Glendora if you know the area.)

I don’t have a clue. But if I found one here on the ranch, I’d cut it down and burn it

This guy ^^^^ Might have it

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=Cryptomeria+japonica+spiralis.&iax=images&ia=images

You guys just amaze me...Stephen Hawking ain't got nothing on you fellers.

Bubby had one, it made a mess every year so we cut it down.

I'd vote Crypto....Get yourself an app called picture this. Just take a pic and wait for the ID to pop up, makes me look smart sometimes

iPhones have a pretty neat feature. Take a picture of a plant, hit the info button on the bottom of the screen and it’ll tell you what the plant/flower/tree is

You people and your labels.
The proper course of action would be to ask the tree how it identifies and then respect the answer.

We had one of those for years and I don't think this looks like the Norfolk Island.

It is not a Sitka spruce
🤷

Probably an aspiring actor "temporarily" working a a waiter at the Red Squirrel Grille.

Get the app. Tell you right quick what it is

I also have a pine that I'd like to ID. I'd love to get a couple more like it. I've used a couple keys without success. I've tried a number of times to raise them from seed but the seeds are always hollow and sterile. I got it from a nursery and have concluded that it's a sterile hybrid of some kind, kind of like a triploid watermelon.

May interest someone, our local War Memorial High School has a couple of trees grown from Lone Pine (Gallipoli) stock.

Means a bit to us.