"It's sometimes called Russian thistle, though it's not a thistle; it's a relative of quinoa and beets. It starts out bright green and tender, almost succulent, something you could stir-fry in a pan and plop on a plate; but it's potentially poisonous if you eat too much. It grows spiny and tough, with scarlet stripes and tiny, papery white flowers; but then withers into a pale skeleton of a plant."
"Tumbleweed seeds came to North Dakota from the Russian Empire in a shipment of flaxseeds in the 1870s. Seeds then accompanied settlers across the West, falling out of railcars to grow along train tracks, traveling in hay to lumber camps, even stowing away in sheep's wool to Idaho. California's agricultural commissioners fretted that tumbleweed would destroy the state's wheat industry by making fields unfarmable. In 1905, California passed a law requiring state and local agricultural inspectors to destroy any tumbleweeds they found."
Tumbleweed is a succulent-then-spiny plant related to quinoa and beets, edible when young but potentially poisonous in excess. The plant matures into a dry pale skeleton that detaches and tumbles while carrying thousands of viable seeds ready to germinate after rain. Seeds arrived in North Dakota from the Russian Empire via a flaxseed shipment in the 1870s and spread westward by falling from railcars and hitching rides in hay and sheep's wool. California officials feared crop loss and in 1905 mandated destruction despite widespread unfamiliarity. Railroads and agriculture enabled establishment, and a distinct Californian species arose by combining the full genomes of two distant species, identified in 2002.
Read at High Country News
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