Translated into English as “floating trap” and known as “water chestnut,” Trapa natans has the shape of a trap and has become a kind of trap for the Hudson River. Trapa natans has its origins in Asia, where it is still a delicacy with a juicy interior, yet since the 1800s it has developed into an invasive species in the United States. Estimated to have traveled from Asia to Europe and across the ocean, Trapa natans was introduced into the waters of Harvard University’s Botanic Garden in the 1870s. Over more than a hundred years, it has remained in motion with the tides of the Hudson River, just like I was traveling upstate, to the estuaries of the Hudson, moving alongside the tidal river on a train.
The journey from New York City to upstate was one that got greener and lusher by the minute, yet each station was an interruption of the natural river ecosystem. The watery green would be interrupted and covered with concrete, traps of urbanization. To get to the river, I went far from any station but was still separated from the river by the train tracks. I climbed over a “Do Not Cross the Railway Tracks” sign and saw a landscape shaped by water circulation, islands with trees, and islands of water plants. After a few minutes, I realized I was there during the ebb, and the riverbed was becoming more and more exposed, also revealing piles of Trapa natans seeds. Black and spiky, these seeds were geared to travel with the tides, catch hold of anything they could cling to, and start again from where they settled.
Traveling by the river, traveling with the river, the landscape is constantly formed and changed by transportation as well as adaptation. Later, learning about how Trapa natans takes over and eliminates the native plants, “what is natural?” has become a question to linger on.
