Picture?

Apparently it's already snowing in Tacoma.

Quite heavily.

Sorry - I swear it was there - then disappeared. I'll try again.

I have done a little research but not luck yet. But if we don't figure it out you could try calling the park district, they may have a list of plants that are in the park. It prob had flowers and the flowers have dropped. I check around a bit more but if I don't find the answer hopefully someone else will join the conversation and help.

Thanks, Plaft. This has been driving me crazy because it looks familiar but I can't place it. I tried looking at images of plants with pods but no luck. I've no idea what else to call these things.

I was looking for stigma or stamins, yellow. But my botany knowledge is not that great. The cluster looks familiar to me too, I will look some more tomorrow.

Nice, Embothhrium, looks similar and it could have been growing in the shrub. But the stems look more sturdy and woody then the ivy stems.

Yes, Ivy is what I must have been thinking of. We rarely see the berries and seed heads because they're pruned off. I found this photo - ivy -

I did a search for 'bees and ivy' and found a site, Wessex Wandering, with this caption and photo, so I think we've cracked it. Wait until I give Steve a lesson on 'shrub' vs. 'vine'....."They are harvesting pollen from ivy. This late in the year ivy is pollinated chiefly by the few wasps and flies that remain..."

Steve Russell is a great photographer of insects. I thought you might like to see his photo that started this search.

If it's an evergreen shrub it could be Fatsia. I'll have to take a closer look at mine which are blooming now. Maybe I can find an old bloom that has expired.

It's Hedera helix, no question. Here in its natural habitat it is a vital late food source for insects when in flower and for birds later when in berry. It is in the arboresecnt form which ivy develops when it flowers, so the stems will be more robust than in the climbing form.

Fatsi looks like this in flower:

https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrTcdHVsUlYd0EAHAAPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Fatsia+Flowers&fr=yhs-avast-brwsr001&hspart=avast&hsimp=yhs-brwsr001

The common nuisance ivy often seen having reached the flowering stage in this area is Irish ivy (Hedera hibernica (G. Kirchn.) Carriere (H. helix 'Hibernica') although forms of H. helix L. are also present here as wild plants - but are less overbearing and noticeable. (And of course there is a local history of planting both intentionally). Like Seattle, Tacoma has smothering, Kudzu-like growths of Irish ivy dominating greenbelts and significant percentages of park lands.

I still think it's Ivy, a plant which is ubiquitous here and with which I am very familiar. I can see some flowering Ivy from where I am sitting right now. Embryonic Ivy fruit, which is what the photo shows, rather than flowers, look quite different from Fatsia fruit. The stems of Fatsia flowers/fruit are also much paler and smoother than those in the photo.

Does Fatsia japonica grow in Tacoma? Fatsia leaves are massive and unique so even the briefest description would differentiate it immediately from Ivy if the OP could ask the photographer.

Yes, fatsia grows all over the milder parts of the PNW. I also agree this is ivy - it is SO prevalent in this area and so often allowed to mature to flowering stage that it is hard to miss the mature seedheads as the photo shows. Fatsia produces a more rounded, denser seedhead with individual fruits being rounded rather than that distinctive, capsulated form of the ivy.

btw, when ivy gets to the adult flowering stage, it is much more shrubby than viney, even to the point of being a small tree with a sturdy woody trunk.

No doubt it's ivy. I've never closely examined the seed heads of Fatsia and compared it with ivy. Fatsia is closely related to ivy, so much so that there's a bi-generic cross between the two called Fatshedera as some of you know. It's not quite a vine and not quite a shrub. A failure at either in my opinion. I've seen it trellised where it doesn't look half bad though.

I have a Fatshedera lizei growing on the wall of my house. It scrambles up through the Parthenocissus henryana. It's not very exciting but it is green when the Parthenocissus loses its leaves. It's never flowered. I found it in a wastepaper bin at work, the sad remains of someone's unloved desk plant.

Nice save!

I had some Fatshedra lizei growing around here for awhile. The tips would die back in cold weather even though ivy and Fatshedera didn't in the same weather.

Here's a picture of one of my Fatsias planted with some Skimmia, Aucuba, and Cunninghamia l. 'Glauca'. Picture taken 11-18-70, looking NW.