Tumbleweed When
westerns were big in the movies, you could always
hear some lonesome cowboy sing about the tumbling
tumbleweed. The tumbleweed stood for everything a
cowboy was; a little ugly, lanky, and a foot loose
rambler. Deserted ghost towns would have
tumbleweeds rolling down main street. Would you
believe that tumbleweed actually hitched a ride
from the steppes of Mongolia with a shipment of
grain? That's how it got here, and it isn't a
native plant at all. Very strange, but
true. Tumbleweed grows on dry plains, in cultivated fields, roadsides, and waste places, mainly in grain-growing areas. It has a special way of broadcasting its seeds. It doesn't depend on the wind, or birds. It doesn't hitchhike on the fur of animals. When it becomes mature, it breaks off at the base and because it is shaped like a ball, it tumbles before the wind, scattering seeds where ever it goes. It is all over Colorado up to 8,500 feet. 2000
bibliography: "Russian Thistle", http://www.cwma.org/russian_thistle.html, (Sept. 2000). "Weed Guide: Rusian Thisle", http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/croplive/cropprot/weedguid/russthis.htm, (Sept. 2000).
|