Mysterious Southern Illinois Seed Pod

Milkvine Seed Pod

Ask the Expert: What is this mysterious pod?
A friend just found these pods in a shrub around her Southern Illinois house.  Each pod is about four inches long.  Any clue as to what they are???  Suzanne

Plant Expert Reply:

This seed pod stumped me.  It looked familiar, yet not enough for me to make an identification.  Lucky for me, I knew someone who could help.  I forwarded the picture to Dr Jeremie Fant at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Here is Jeremie’s response:
To me it looks like a milkweed pod but the plant itself seems to be a vine of some type. There is a climbing milkweed species
Funastrum cynanchoides. (http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=FUCYC)  – Not seen one in person but seems plausible.

Another possibility are Matelea spp. There are three species of this genus which is native to Southern counties of Illinois. Not sure I could tell you which the one you have could be but http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=MATEL – but if you click on these maps and then on Illinois it  will tell you which counties they are native to which might help narrow it down.

I think Jeremie is right about it being a type of Matelea because Funastrum is not native to Illinois.  I think it is either a Matelea gonocarpos (angular fruit milkvine or a Matelea obliqua (climbing milkvine).

Thanks, Jeremie for pointing me in the right direction.

Suzanne, hope this identification helps. Sorry it took so long.