Need help identifying a 25+ year old "tree"

[ashintz2]

Pictures of the "tree" in question attached.

Backstory: A good friend of mine planted this as a seedling for a Mother's Day project in kindergarten, about 29 years ago. His mom told me that it was re-potted once about 20 years ago...since then it has remained in the pot it is pictured in and sat in that same spot by a westward facing window. For ~20 years!

It has been deteriorating for the last few years (I wonder why?) and as you can see in the closer up pictures, some of the few leaves left appear to be wrinkled/withering. I cant imagine what it looks like inside that pot...

So can anyone help identify what this is? She told me she is considering tossing it because of its sickly state, but although it is a shell of it's former self I would love to try and save it! I still think it has some very unique character in it's own special way, and healthier/newer growth appears to be happening near the base of the trunk.

Thanks for any insight!

 

[crab apple]

a jade of some sort

 

[Paradox]

Yup jade

 

[The Barber]

New sprouts are probably from leaves that fell off. They will sprout new jade plants from the leaves. Looks like it dried out too much, they get wrinkly when they need water generally, and this one is in really bad shape. If the roots have rotted from overwatering then they possibly do the same? They don't need a lot of water, if you see the leaves are starting to lightly wrinkle then that's when I usually water mine. If the soil is really dry, sit the pot in a bowl of water and let it absorb water for maybe an hour.

 

[ashintz2]

New sprouts are probably from leaves that fell off. They will sprout new jade plants from the leaves. Looks like it dried out too much, they get wrinkly when they need water generally, and this one is in really bad shape. If the roots have rotted from overwatering then they possibly do the same? They don't need a lot of water, if you see the leaves are starting to lightly wrinkle then that's when I usually water mine. If the soil is really dry, sit the pot in a bowl of water and let it absorb water for maybe an hour.

Thanks for the reply! Yes, when I took these photos a few days ago the soil was extremely dry so I gave it a healthy dose of water. Sounds like you have experience with jades, any advice on how to go about trying to get this one into a healthier state? I know at some point it needs to come out of that pot, but if it's already in bad shape I don't want to stress it out even more.

 

[The Barber]

I'd just give it water and see if that improves it before anything else. The plant in the photo is a raisin, worst case scenario you have some young offspring you can grow out.