Robbers' marshmallows

I have a friend who inspires me. Well, all of my friends inspire me, but this one in particular has inspired me with an increased passion for learning about anything and everything that I even have the slightest curiosity about. It's gotten to where if I wonder about anything at all I get really nerdy and excited to look it up in an encyclopedia or read about it online. It's almost always something little, but I love it. It's fun to have answers about little things I've always wondered about.

Recently my curiosity was piqued by a memory from my childhood. When my cousins came over, we liked to play Cops and Robbers in my backyard. The police station was over by the patio and the robbers' hideout was a little opening in the trees where the lowest branches made something like a little cave. Inside this tree cave, there was an abundance of this plant:

Kinda pretty, right? The seed pods, however, were our favorite part.

Every time we went to the robbers' hideout, we'd "roast marshmallows," which just meant we'd make a pile of sticks, break the seed pods off the plant,  and hold them over the "fire" while we sat and didn't say anything. The twiggy stems were perfect marshmallow-roasting sticks.

Every now and then, I've thought about those "marshmallows" and wondered what exactly they were. As it turns out, a 10 minute internet search supplied me with the pictures and a description of the plant. Because of its transluscent pods, through which you can see all its seeds, the plant is called "honesty." I thought that was pretty ironic, considering it was in the robbers' hideout. As it turns out, though, another name for it is the "money plant" or the "silver dollar plant." We were a lot richer than we thought, I guess. I just can't believe we ripped up and "burned" our money!

My parents don't live in that house anymore, but I don't remember seeing that plant in the back yard for a long time. I guess we killed honesty.