I'm not sure what zone I'm in, but I live in Southern california - Orange County I did a google image search on a Lychee tree and it MIGHT be..I can't tell for sure yet.. I wouldn't be surprised though since we have a longan, cherimoya, jujube, and mango tree? UPDATE I just checked and my CLIMATE ZONE is 6... if that's what you're asking Anyone else want to confirm or guess some more? :) Thanks to all the current repliers!

A species of Cordyline. The thing growing out of it is the flower stem; you can keep it. You will probably find that the stem will branch after the flowering is finished. Old plants become much-branched, as in the pic below Resin Here is a link that might be useful:

When I was a forestry grad student at the Univ. of Minnesota we used to take turns answering extension calls, or rosebush calls as we termed them. You could set your calendar by the phone calls coming in. At this time of year, the cedar-apple rust was the major panic. Just prior to that, it was American elms with little leaves due to earth fill piled around them on new building lots.

Weird..I don't recognize a lot of your terms but I had good luck with these..I lived with hi alkaline soil(Some areas 7 and more)..clay and hard pan and these did better than any others..I planted tons of different trees too.. Make sure they get plenty of water the first few years and go into winter well watered too. We were a zone 5 or 6. at the western edge of the Great Basin and got hi winds occasionally too 80mph and more..I hardly put any amendments either...Dry falls and then cold dry winters is what killed trees around here.. Good luck..breaks your heart when trees die!