Tumbleweed - Plants Forming Tumbleweeds

Plants Forming Tumbleweeds

Although the number of species with the tumbleweed habit is small, quite a number of these species are common agricultural weeds.

Although thought to be native to Eurasia, several annual species of Salsola (family Amaranthaceae) that form tumbleweeds have become so common in North America that they are a common symbol in Western movies, where they are typically symbolic of desolation in frontier areas. Salsola pestifera became naturalized over large areas of North America after being imported from continental Asia often in shipments with agricultural seeds. Salsola kali is said to have arrived in the United States in shipments of flax seeds to South Dakota in the nineteenth century.

Salsola tragus (Russian thistle) is an annual plant that breaks off at the stem base, forming a tumbleweed that disperses its seeds as it rolls on top of the ground. It seems to have been imported into South Dakota from Russia in 1870 or 1874 in shipments of flaxseed. It has become a noxious weed that has spread throughout North America to inhabit suitable habitats which include areas with disturbed soils like roadsides, cultivated fields and eroded slopes, and in natural habitats that have sparse vegetation like coastal and riparian sands, semi-deserts and deserts. Salsola tragus is the correct name for the narrow-leaved, weedy representative of the S. kali aggregate found widely over North America. It is an extremely variable species with many races which vary in distinctness. Some of these varieties in the past have been divided into subspecies or even separate species. Though it is a noxious weed, Salsola tragus is useful on arid rangelands as forage for livestock.

Other members of the family Amaranthaceae that form tumbleweeds include Amaranthus albus, native to Central America but introduced and weedy in Europe, Asia, and Australia; Amaranthus graecizans naturalized to North America from its native Africa; Amaranthus retroflexus; Corispermum hyssopifolium; Kochia; and Cycloloma atriplicifolium, which is called the plains tumbleweed.

Atriplex rosea called the tumbling oracle or tumbling orach, is a member of the Chenopodiaceae.

In the aster family (Asteraceae), Centaurea diffusa (a knapweed) forms tumbleweeds. This species is native to Eurasia and naturalized in much of North America. Also in this family, Lessingia glandulifera sometimes forms tumbleweeds; it grows in desert areas, chaparral, and open pine forests of the western United States and is usually found on sandy soils.

In the legume family (Fabaceae), species reported to produce tumbleweeds include some members of the genus Psoralea, and Baptisia tinctoria.

In the plantain family (Plantaginaceae), Plantago cretica.

In the Solanaceae, Solanum rostratum.

In the mustard family (Brassicaceae), Sisymbrium altissimum, Crambe maritima, Lepidium, and Anastatica (a resurrection plant) form tumbleweeds. Very similar in habit to Anastatica, but very distantly related, are the spore-bearing Selaginella lepidophylla (a lycopod) and earthstar mushroom family (Geastraceae). All of these curl into a ball when dry, and uncurl when moistened.

A tumbleweed formed from the flower cluster (inflorescence) occurs in some species of the parsley family (Apiaceae).

The garden plant "baby's-breath" (Gypsophila paniculata), which is in the pink family Caryophyllaceae, has a dry inflorescence that forms tumbleweeds. In parts of central and western North America, it has become a common weed in many locations including hayfields and pastures.