Tumbleweed, wind witch and Russian cactus are among the many common names for the Russian thistle (Salsola tragus) – though it isn't a thistle or a cactus at all and is instead part of the Amaranth ...

We had noticed a few brittle tumbleweed skeletons lying around. But that was to be expected. Salsola tragus, as it’s properly called, or Russian thistle, has become ubiquitous in the West.

In 2023, my colleague Yusra Farzan documented giant tumbleweed sightings in a number of Southern California cities. Russian thistles, better known as tumbleweeds, arrived in South Dakota in the ...

Tumbleweed is actually Russian Thistle, which propagates by having the top half of the plant detach to disperse its seeds by being blown to a new area. It’s not native to the US; the first ...