Need help identifying South Florida sTrAnGe plant - Pod Pictures!!!

[infiniteMPG]

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 :

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 :

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 :

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!!

[infiniteMPG]

Just to add a note that I spoke with the co-worker friend who brought this in and he said this was a rather large tree, was not just a small plant or brush (as I was originally thinking). He said it was dark when stumbled across this so he wasn't much help with leaf shape or other features.

[enigma]

infiniteMPG wrote in news: [e-mail] ups.com:

i'm not close to an expert on southern trees, but the pod looks a bit like a very small mahogany pod. lee

[infiniteMPG]

ike a very small mahogany pod.

Very good!!! We checked into it and it's definitely a mahogany tree!

Thanks for your help!