So what is a tumbleweed exactly?
- It is a type of plant that grows from a seed, matures, dries, and breaks away from its roots.
- It is driven around by the wind- sometimes years before it disintegrates leaving seeds in its final resting place.
- They can be as small as a soccer ball or as big as a car!
- Hot, flat desert terrain is ideal for them. Wide expanses of relatively flat land to roll across until they can’t roll any more.
- The seeds are unusual because they have no protective coating.
- Most species are a thorny, flowering plant before they start traveling.
- One of these plants can produce over 100,000 seeds.
- Their thorns are sharp enough to pop bike tires or pierce an unsuspecting flip flop!
- If you think a tumbleweed is no big deal, read this first hand account:
“In another week some of the plants had grown as big as bowling balls. Knowing they would soon double and triple in size, we hacked them with hoes, loaded them into the back of my Jeep, and hauled them to the dump. Two weeks later they were back again.
Throughout the summer we would spend most Saturdays stuffing 40-pound trash bags with the latest crop, trying to interrupt the ancient cycle by preventing the young plants from setting seed. I’d canvass every square foot of the property, and one week later I’d have to do it all over again. Salsola was everywhere.”
- It was October 1880 when the Department of Agriculture first got word of a strange plant growing in South Dakota.Unfortunately, it was filed away and forgotten. Within 10 years it was found almost 200 miles away and was extremely prolific. In fact, they proposed building a fence around the state to keep it in, but it was too late. Specimens were found as far away as Canada.
- Watch this. It’s all because one farmer didn’t take care of the problem…this happened!