Looks a lot like a type of milkweed vine, in the genus Matelea, but I'm not sure of the species.

Thanks, it is a tall woody tree.

Where are you located? What zone are you in? Do you know how old the tree is? Many vines will grow into a tree if they are old enough.

Carole

Looks like the seedpods and foliage of Stephanotis florabunda, the "Wedding Flower." This plant is an ornamental vine which has waxy, white flowers about one inch across and two to three inches long, very fragrant, which are used routinely by florists for weddings. Each individual flower retails for two to four or five dollars, depening upon the region of the county. The flowers grow in clusters of up to 20, and are followed by milkweed like pods with seeds exactly as shown above, with the silk parachute.

The plant is a rampant vine with glossy, waxy green lives, and will climb up, by twining, almost anything. It can take minimal or no frost (I believe it is a zone 10, but perhaps could be a zone 9). It is grown as a landscape plant in frost-free or nearly frost free places -- Florida, California for sure, probably in parts of Texas and possibly Arizona. I think it's native to Africa or Madigascar, but I'm not positive.

Whatever you have, it's definitely in what used to classified as the Asclepiadacea or Milkweed family, now part of the Dogbane family. If it's not a stephanotis vine growing in a tree, could it be a stephanotis vine someone trained to grow AS A TREE FORM? This is quite commonly done with wisteria, and someone about a mile away from my house has an orange trumpet vine trained to a standard form, with about an 8 foot tall, foot in diameter trunk topped by a large ball of foliage. They prune the top pretty severely every year to keep it from getting out of control.

Stephanotis is my best guess. If not that, some other type of tropical tree related to milkweed.

Yes, denninmi is right. It is a tree but could be the result of training. Lovely anyways.