Scribblista notes our tumbleweed snowman, which makes an annual appearance beside the freeway near my house.
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Your science fact of the day: tumbleweed, also known as Russian thistle, is not native to North America, having originated in a batch of flax seed from the Ukraine. (Then shouldn’t it be “Ukrainian thistle”?)
The “Russian Thistle” factoid is one of my favorites! My assumption is that the presences of tumbleweed in every Western film ever made is then an anachronism, no?
Depends on the timing, but yeah, I think you are correct. My source for this is an article in Scientific American years ago saying the tumbleweed arrived (I think in the Dakotas) in the 1870s.
Wow… It kinda messes with my head to think that tumbleweeds are from the Eastern bloc…
I’m not sure if this is correct, but I’ve heard that linden trees (which are all over St. Petersburg, Russia) are closely related to our cottonwood. If true, it’s incredible, given how ABQ and St. Petersburg are on opposite ends of the climate spectrum.