Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Mystery Plant in Va. - Can you identify?, 1 by GimpyGardener

GimpyGardener wrote:
Hi,

This plant came up in an area set aside for composting, but we have never seen anything like it before. I've asked all around and tried the internet, but I can't seem to pick the correct keywords to pull up anything resembling this!
I thought it was a tree at first, but it doesn't seem sturdy enough. (We had storm with high winds that pushed it over not long after these pictures.)
We would really like to identify this and are anxious to know if it is an invasive plant since these pods hold tons of seeds!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you for looking!! :-)