A co-worker called me over the begining if the week and asked if I
could identify something for him. He had what looked like a seed pod
from a plant he found near the beach in the Sarasota area of west
central Florida. It was about 3" long and about 1-1/2" in diameter,
very wood like covering, pointed towards one end and was divided into
5 sections. He stated this was growing from a cluster of leafs (which
he did not have any of) but stated this was growing "up" from the
cluster, so the stem stuck down from the bottom with this seed pod on
top. This is a link to a picture of the pod :

http://mysite.verizon.net/res02mt8/pod01.jpg

After a couple days this pod started opening from the stem end, which
means this was opening at the bottom. This is what that initial
seperation looked like :

http://mysite.verizon.net/res02mt8/pod02.jpg

Today I came to my desk and he had left it there as it had completely
opened and the small, thin, dark brown seeds were obvious, clumped
into 5 sections below the hard, wood like covers. This is a picture
of the pod fully opened :

http://mysite.verizon.net/res02mt8/pod03.jpg

I checked online and thru my Florida wildlife identification books and
can't find a thing so I can't say if this is native or not (there are
a lot of invasive plants in this area.... anyone want a few million
Brazillian Pepper trees?). Any and all help would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks!!