It’s spooky season, so we’re highlighting invasive species that lurk around Virginia. Seriously, a plant with horns is pretty scary and if you saw the damage two-horned trapa (Trapa bispinosa), commonly known as water chestnut, can do to a freshwater body such as tidal rivers, streams, ponds, reservoirs, lakes and wetlands, you would be terrified!
Two-horned trapa invades freshwater habitats such as ponds, lakes, and slow-moving streams. At present, two-horned trapa is found in Virginia at more than 70 sites in five counties: Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Fauquier and Charlotte. Like Eurasian water chestnut, two-horned water chestnut has the potential to obstruct water flow, inhibit recreational and commercial use of waterways, shade out submerged aquatic vegetation, starve aquatic species of oxygen and outcompete native aquatic plants. A water chestnut colony can smother an entire pond or lake.
If you believe you have found two-horned trapa or the related Eurasian water chestnut, please report your sighting. Learn more about this invasive species at dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/invasive-species/water-chestnut
Original source can be found here.
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