Sorry, guest, those unripe seed pods aren't bringing anything to mind, and your description of the leaves being "japonica" like isn't helpful, because japonica is not a plant, its part of the name of many plants, meaning 'from Japan'. When did the tree flower, what colour were the flowers, is it evergreen or deciduous, what shape are the leaves? How tall and wide is the tree itself? Actually, it'd be a lot easier if you could post a photograph

Hi I know ive not given the greatest description, When I said Japonica I meant like a Fatsia Japonica with its pointy leaves. with regards to weather is evergreen or deciduous I trully do not know as my friend has just moved into this house and I only saw it for the first time today. I have asked her to take a photo of the tree which I would estimate to be about 4 meters tall and aprox 2 meters, As soon as I recieve the photo I will post.

Palmate leaves, twinned seed capsules suggest some kind of Acer.

But they do not look like Acer seed pods...

No, they don't. Think I'll wait till I see the photo of the plant.

I've Google imaged pages of acers and none of the pictures are similar to this, although I wont rule out some kind of Acer, The best thing I can do is wait until I get a picture of the whole tree and then it might easier to recognise. Thanks for trying though.

Looks like a Tree Peony to me, prabably Paeonia lutea? Grows to about 8-10ft maximum. About right Guest?

Yeah I came across that whilst doing a search on google, I didnt see it when in flower and the leaves didnt look as exotic but im edging my bets toward it being a peony as the 2 pods seem to emerge from would have been a flower, the only thing is every picture i've seen of a peony had a group of 4 pods and the ones on this tree are all pairs. Thankyou :)

Actually yes I do now believe that it IS a peony and in deed a Paenia lutea as I've found some pics and the leaves are alike so thankyou Factal, I would like to know if I can take a cutting or grow from the seed so I can hopefully find out how best to do this now so thanks once again! :)

If it is Paeonia lutea then you can grow it from seed from ripe seed pods - the one you have in the photo is not ripe. When ripe the pod splits open and inside are several large black seeds the size of a pea. If you look at the ground around the peony you will probably find that there are seedlings growing. These can be lifted and potted up to grow on then planted back into the garden. We remove dozens of seedlings from around our tree peonies every year.

Paeonia "lutea" is now called P. ludlowii incidentally.

Grrr...

D'oh!