Tumbleweed

''"See them tumbling down

''Pledging their love to the ground

''Lonely but free I'll be found

Drifting along with the tumbling tumble weed

Tumbleweed (Salsola species or "Russian Thistle" though it is not related to thistles) is a plant in the Goosefoot family (Amaranthaceae), which breaks away from its roots in the autumn, and is driven by the wind, as a light, rolling mass, over the fields and prairies, scattering its seeds far and wide. Prairie tumbleweed produces its seeds in such profusion that the plant doesn't bother with protective coatings or food reserves for the coiled plant embryos. The deep, ineradicable taproot survives to grow again the following season.

This salt-tolerant Siberian alien listed among "noxious weeds" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture was first reported in the United States around 1877 in Bon Homme County, South Dakota, apparently transported as a stowaway in flax seed imported by Ukrainian farmers. South Dakota proved harsh and dry for growing flax, but by 1900, Salsola had tumbled to the Pacific Coast. It was also actively introduced by the U.S.D.A., under the impression that cattle might be induced to eat it in hard times during droughts. They wouldn't touch it. Fortunately small rodents and Pronghorns graze on the youngest shoots.

Tumbleweed thrives wherever land use has disturbed the ecosystem. It can be seen in Death Valley, California and in Colorado at elevations of 8500 feet.

Tumbleweed has naturalized to the point where it is now endemic, changing the North American Great Plains plant community forever. It is controlled with mass applications of herbicides. Ironically Tumbleweed is such a symbol of the authentic American West that it is generally associated with Westerns, where it serves to show that an area is abandoned. "Tumbleweed" was a hit for the cowboy singing group Sons of the Pioneers.

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