Or, is it even a tree?

When we were out on our bicycles yesterday, we saw the strangest thing! At first I thought it was a dead tree with a vine climbing up it, but on a closer look I think what I thought was a vine is actually the tree. There were quite a few leaves low down, and very few up above so the tree looked dead.

This is what it looked like closer to the ground. It’s sort of mess of branches and sticks.

This is what it looks like higher up, hardly any leaves, some flowers, and some big brown balls.

When I looked closely I realized it was not a vine, but a lot of small branches actually coming from the trunk of this tree.  I know the photo looks like such a confusing mess of branches it’s hard to see.

These are the flowers. They did not have a scent that we could tell.

Flower parts were almost raining down on the ground.

These are the leaves 

All that vegetation to the left of my husband is the tree, so you can see it is a fairly large thing.

Here is a view looking up the tree.

I don’t know what to make of this. I don’t even know where to start looking to identify it. Google “crazy tree with white and rose flowers and big brown balls that might be a vine or a parasite”? Maybe next time we’re out I’ll have to bring home some flowers and see if any of my neighbors know what it is.

You just never know what you are going to see around here!