Nurturing Native Investigation 2017-002: Drifting along with Tumblin’ Tumbleweed

The tumble weed as "American West" as Cowboys and Square Dancing
Actually an alien species - Russian Thistle
Maybe it is appropriate in a land of immigrants......  hmmm...

Well of course the hill has tumbleweeds….  It is in the American west after all!!  It is a deeply disturbed site, along a major road, not looked after properly in a poorly (not at all) tended landscape.  The hill is in good company there are 100 million acres invaded with the tumbleweed after an unfortunate event in 1873 when a Russian immigrant unintentionally introduced the RUSSIAN THISTLE (Kali tragus) in contaminated flax seed to South Dakota.  The rest then becomes American west iconic imagery of it spreading in the breeze.  I am just happy (or rather embarrassed) that I can share with you in such detail the tumbleweed in multiple stages of its lifecycle, courtesy THE HILL.

Tumbleweed ready for take-off to blow in the breeze

Russian Thistle Growing!

Russian Thistle Just Emerging

And here is some more information on this rogue, courtesy of the California noxious weed listing:

https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/IPC/encycloweedia/weedinfo/salsola.htm#anchor705730

Don’t worry, this guy is sentenced to “impending eradication” that most likely will be done before you can get to the chorus of the song by Bob Nolan which made this rouge a catchy tongue twister.