The annual weed pull calling volunteers to Bare Hill Pond in Harvard, Massachusetts; to yank invading water chestnut weeds from the pond’s depths wasn’t held this year. Why? Volunteer Rick Dickson said, “because we finally don’t need it.” The plant is injurious with its four-headed needle-sharp seeds typically making it to shore and cutting the
Trapa natans is native to Western Europe and Africa and northeast Asia, including eastern Russia, China, and southeast Asia to Indonesia. Trapa natans was first introduced to North America in the mid- to late-1870s, when it is known to have been introduced into the Cambridge botanical garden at Harvard University around 1877. A decade later
Heard Pond became so heavily infested that the beauty and recreational value of it were lost. Once flourishing with native water lilies Heard Pond had a reputation for great fishing and bird watching. All gone, due to the lack of open water, nearly completely covered with water chestnut. Water chestnuts are native to parts of Eurasia