Do you have more info on that record or others like it?
True, though an avocado would almost certainly be cultivated in NY and not wild and OPs seed would definitely be wild if it was transported on its own. I’ve definitely heard “waif” applied to long distance dispersal of seeds via water.
There’s actually a good discussion of it on the NYFA page for avocados: https://newyork.plantatlas.usf.edu/plant.aspx?id=1777
There are a lot of plants (especially in the New York or New England flora) that were collected once from ballast waste, but never established. You can see some of the not persisting plants in NY by searching the NY Flora Atlas for not persisting plants, but most have little discussion.
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