Hi, I’m hoping someone will be able to identify this plant and/or fruit.
It was photographed by a friend in a cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. She said that using reverse Google images just gave a guess of “plant” 
To quote her: “found on a tree or very sparse bush, approximately 5 feet in height”
Thanks for any help!
Holy moly, she just got a hit on Reddit. It turns out to be “Gomphocarpus physocarpus (Apocynaceae family), commonly known as balloonplant”, or seed pods.
Thanks anyway! 
I tried searching the Better Homes & Gardens Plant Encyclopedia online at http://www.bhg.com/gardening/plant-dictionary/. This database has facets for searching by plant size, type, and the zipcode where the plant is found. I checked www.usps.comand used zipcode 11201 for Brooklyn, NY in my search. Unfortunately, I did not get a likely match for a 3-8 foot shrub or a tree (of any height) in Brooklyn.
Brooklyn has a Botanic Garden (http://www.bbg.org/) so I also checked their website’s Plant Collection database (http://www.bbg.org/collections/plant_collection). However, you need to know the plant species to be able to use the database.
I then resorted to Google and entered the search term “green plant with puffy spiky bulbs” and tentatively identified your plant as a Strawberry Bush. There was no match so I returned to the images to review their tags and then looked for a Balloon Plant and Gomphocarpus Physocarpus. Unfortunately, neither the Brooklyn Botanic GHarden or the BHG encyclopedia had entries, so I entered the scientific term into Google and found a plant description at the Missouri Botanical Garden here:
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=e373#AllImages
They describe it as a shrubby perennial that grows 4-6 feet noted for its balloon-like pods
Debs, that was so sweet of you to do that much research! I really appreciate the effort, and the time you put in.
You were 100% right - it was "Gomphocarpus physocarpus ".
I think you have a bright future here at the SDMB.
Thanks again,
Wallet
Thank you, your question and my answer were a part of my librarianship training to get aspiring librarians into the reference trenches! Cheers.
