furtive signs
Triffids at Newtown Creek?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last weekend, I was enacting my usual pilgrimage back from Greenpoint to Astoria and since it was a nice day I decided to take the long way home and visit Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary as it had been a good 72 hours since the last time I was there. That’s the Queens Midtown Expressway truss bridge of the larger Long Island Expressway highway complex at its highest altitude, some 106 feet over the water.
In truth, the Dutch Kills route is actually a bit of a shortcut for me, as the route is a good number of blocks shorter than taking the Greenpoint Avenue pathway eastwards through Blissville and Sunnyside due to the somewhat triangular relationship between Northern Blvd. and GP avenue. I like to cut down 27th street from Borden Avenue, in order to access Skillman Avenue, which runs roughly parallel to Northern Blvd. until 39th street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was on 27th street, right in front of what was once known as Irving Subway Grate, that I spotted this bizarre plant. One would like to imagine two distinct scenarios to describe it – one involving extraterrestrial spores settling down upon LIC and spawning an alien vegetable, the other is that the mutagenic chemicals swirling around in the waters of Dutch Kills have perverted and created a new and debased form of life.
It’s probably something that a botanist would instantly recognize, but please – allow me my little fantasies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These seed pods, or perhaps fruit, were heavily armored. They were fairly large, at about 3-5 inches in length.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Were they not shaped like the pincers of an insect, or crab, I would have produced my trusty pocket knife and cut one open to reveal what was inside. Instead, I was fearful that I might get pinched by some autonomic reaction so I stayed at a safe distance. What if they were man eating Triffids in some juvenile form?
You can’t be too careful around Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What were they? Only that impossible thing, which cannot possibly be real, hiding in the cupola of the sapphire megalith of Long Island City that stares down upon the world of men through its three lobed burning eye, can know for sure.
Upcoming tours and events:
“The Untold History of the Newtown Creek (aka Insalubrious Valley)” walking tour
with New York Adventure Club, Saturday, October 1st from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Click here for tickets.
“First Calvary Cemetery” walking tour
with Brooklyn Brainery, Saturday, October 8th from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Click here for tickets.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 
Milkweed pods; from a youth growing up near green places.
lucienve
September 29, 2016 at 11:53 am
it looks like milkweed – which is common and known to be a favorite of Monarch butterflies to feed on before returning to Mexico.
On 29 September 2016 at 11:02, The Newtown Pentacle wrote:
> Mitch Waxman posted: “Triffids at Newtown Creek? – photo by Mitch Waxman > Last weekend, I was enacting my usual pilgrimage back from Greenpoint to > Astoria and since it was a nice day I decided to take the long way home and > visit Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary a” >
Hank Linhart
September 29, 2016 at 11:53 am
MIlkweed it is.
When dried it releases its airborne seeds known as “moneystealers”.
Richy Franke
September 29, 2016 at 12:54 pm
http://www2.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/common_milkweed.htm
Fiesta Cranberry
September 29, 2016 at 3:37 pm