Earlier this season I picked up an odd looking spiny black "orb" that resembled a vertebra or some type of seed pod.


Tossed it in the cup holder of my truck and rediscovered it yesterday when it won a short battle with a styrofoam coffee cup full of hot coffee .
Started googling what the the thing was and it turns out to be a seed pod from Eurasian Water Chestnut which is an invasive plant here in CT. . Found an email addy attached to one of the articles so I dropped this Harry fella a quick note.
He replied right away with a very informative description, and some back ground relating to the area of the river I found the thing. Just wanted to publicly thank him for taking the time to respond to my inquiry and for the in depth reply. If someone there at the DEEP wanted to forward this to his boss, or at least let him know the effort was not forgotten please do.
Any how the stuff is bad news so keep your eye out for it and report sightings. Here is more info for anyone that may be interested.

http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2702&q=474710&deepNav_GID=1620