I can't identify it but it's a legume vine. Legumes are good in that they bring nitrogen into the soil. They're bad in that the seeds have a very hard coat and they don't all sprout in the following season. Some legume seeds will stay up to 20 years in the soil before sprouting. So if they're a weed then you'll have to control emerging seedlings for up to 20 years. A lot of the weed legumes were introduced into pastures in many areas to benefit grasses with the extra nitrogen. Of course they didn't all stay out in the pastures.

The flowering plant looks like that small ground cover Lantana, Lantana montevidensis I think. The story behind the old twisted seed pods is that as the pods mature and dry they suddenly split and coil which throws the seed out at a distance from the parent plant.

If there's a lot of that legume then the only effective way to get rid of it is with persistence, never give it a chance to seed again. If you had a photo of its flowers that might help in identifying exactly what it is.

Thank you both for your guesses and help! It does look like the flowers are lantana montevidensis. So nice to have a name to go with them! I've yanked out most of the legume seeds.

Just have no idea how they got there. Do you think the wind brought them from someone else's yard or something? They're intertwined with the lantana montevidensis plant now, so I got rid of a bunch, in case they were harming the flowers. Will definitely try to get rid of them, so I don't have to deal with them for 20 years. Thank you again for your help!!!

I also thought that the flowers looked like Crown Vetch, but those leaves aren't typical of Securigera varia. Lantana montevidensis might be the right species for the flowering photo. Those twisted fruits don't seem to belong to either of those species.

If the vine is a Vicia, the seed pods are explosive. For any kind of seeds/seed pods, critters and sometimes wind can move seeds around. Inspecting often for unexpected sprouts and pulling them if undesirable is how I keep my tended areas free of unwanted plants. They can be sneaky when they sprout under bigger plants!

Here's a Vicia... and there are about 139 others:

http://climbers.lsa.umich.edu/?p=323

Looks like there are two different plants on the pictures. The seed pods (pics 1,3,4) belong to Vicia, common name Vetch. The twisted seed pods are characteristic of a Common Vetch, Vicia sativa https://www.google.ca/search?q=vicia+sativa+seed+pods. The flowering plant on pic 2 is difficult to see clearly enough. May be you could, Anne, post a better picture of it, possibly close-up of the leaves and the flowers?

And, Anne, legumes, Vicia among others, are good for your soil and for your plants. They are commonly grown as cover crops or green manures by organic farmers and gardeners. They are also often grown as companion plants in the vegetable and flower gardens.

Thanks, everyone!! Here are a few more photos closer (the third one shows the black seeds vine intertwined with the flowers).

I definitely like the fragrant flowers (now identified as lantana montevidensis). I was just alarmed when I saw a bunch of these long black (legume) seeds all over the lantana flowers. There are a ton of seeds! I was worried they were weeds that were about to choke the flowers.

But the legume pod confused me because it looked like some type of vegetable plant. I do have sugar snap peas growing nearby but they don't look related, right? They almost look like small string beans or some sort.

If they are a companion plant, then I should leave them alone, but if they are going to be troublesome in the future, it might be better for me to yank as many out as I can? So confusing. Wish the previous homeowners were around for me to ask them, since they planted some beautiful plants in the backyard. It wouldn't surprise me if they were companion plants that I hadn't noticed in the past, or if they were some kind of weed.

Thanks to all who have responded! If you know anything about citrus plants, maybe you can help me ID another plant (I'll start a new thread for that).

I posted yesterday that the vetch could be common vetch, Vicia cracca, Common Vetch, but for some reason some of my posts have disappeared.

Hi my dad and I found the same plant on our walk in Port Campbell,Victoria, Australia and would like to know by a seed person who would know about this black twisted seed pod is it eatable or is it not

Caetlin, you need to start your own post and give us a picture. Do not eat the seeds.