This gives each one sunlight and space to grow. As tumbleweeds tumble, their seeds fall off at a distance from each other. The structure that looks like a dried-out flower is a seed. In the late fall and winter, Russian thistle plants dry out. Tumbleweeds are known by the common name Russian thistle, although they’re not thistles. “It has been known in Russia many years,” Dewey wrote, “and has quite as bad a reputation in the wheat regions there as it has in the Dakotas.” This is where the name Russian thistle originates, said Ayres, although tumbleweeds aren’t really thistles. through South Dakota in flaxseed imported from Europe in the 1870s. Dewey, wrote in 1893 that Russian thistle had arrived in the U.S. Genetic tests have shown that California’s most common tumbleweed, known as Russian thistle, likely came from Ukraine, said retired plant population biologist Debra Ayres, who studied tumbleweeds at the University of California, Davis.Ī U.S. “But its common name is Russian thistle.” You think it must be native,” said Pitcairn. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)Īnd tumbleweeds aren’t even originally from California, or the West for that matter. When they blow into the road, tumbleweeds pose a threat to drivers, who might swerve to avoid them and get into an accident. “They pile up against fences and homes.” A tumbleweed rolled in an abandoned agricultural field next to the freeway in Palmdale, California, in February. “They tumble across highways and can cause accidents,” said Mike Pitcairn, who tracks tumbleweeds at the California Department of Food and Agriculture in Sacramento. As they roll and bounce, pushed by gusts of wind, they can overwhelm entire neighborhoods, as happened recently in Victorville, California, or become a threat for drivers and an expensive nuisance for farmers. But in real life, they’re not only a noxious weed, but one that moves around. Tumbleweeds might be the iconic props of classic Westerns.
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