I live in the pacific NW, and this plant was in my yard when we moved in last fall, at that time was maybe one foot tall. It's now close to 6 feet tall. I opened one of those weird berry/pod things and there were three little seeds surrounded by a white foam type stuff.
ETA: Sorry the pics are so big! I'm not sure how to re-size them...
I don't know this plant. Is it evergreen? What does the flower look like?
It did have some leaves on it in the fall and winter. The flowers are these super tiny yellow things - you can kind of see one on the first picture at the bottom (it has two smaller leaves coming out of it.)