Name that Flora! (NaBloPoMo #22)

One would think I should know better than to be surprised at the kinds of plants and creatures that exist in nature. I am a city girl, comfortable in non-city habitats, but very, very ignorant. Obviously.

The photo above is from the garden of one Gardena resident. She kept bringing in these stalks of these alien-like flora.

So, never mind what the green spherical things with fine spiky things resemble, but when it matures and explodes...?  WTF????? It's like feather-like, strands with seeds nestled inside.

Does anyone know what this plant/flower is called? They look like balloons (or something else, as just a handful of people have commented) that explode into white beards.