Invasive monster tumbleweeds are coming to bury us

cNet ^ | August 26, 2019 | Amanda Kooser

[BenLurkin]

|Tumbleweeds might look soft and fluffy from a distance, but hit one with your car and you quickly learn how woody, spiky and mean they really are. Just look at what happened when Victorville, California, got buried beneath tumbleweeds in 2018.

A new species of giant tumbleweed is now thriving in the US. Salsola ryanii is a hybrid that grows bigger than its parent plants. It can top 6 feet (2 meters) in height, so it's not like those cute little rolling tumbleweeds you see in Western movies.

Researchers at University of California Riverside took a closer look at why this monster plant is thriving, and published a study in the journal AoB Plants.

Salsola ryannii is created from a cross of two invasive tumbleweed species. It has extra sets of its parents' chromosomes, a state know as "polyploidy." Polylploidy is common in plants. For comparison, almost all humans have just one set of chromosomes from each parent.

[null and void]

Also known as Russian Thistle.

Russia! Russia! Russia!

[shotgun]

Welcome to the Columbia Basin, in Eastern Washington. The local community college in Pasco has the nickname, Tumbleweed Tech.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Wow, Curtis is good. I didn't know he was such a good singer.

I always liked the Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and the Sons Of The Pioneers and their many versions of Tumbling Tumbleweeds. The harmonies were fantastic. This is a great western tribute show from the 70s.

[cherry]

when we are driving anywhere near tumbleweeds its a game to try to hit one straight on....they do disintegrate.....

[EasySt]

Here's one...

https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2019/08/23/monster-tumbleweed-invasive-new-species-here-stay

[jonascord]

It’s Kalifornia. Can’t generate a whole lot of empathy for that Socialist septic tank.

[Nailbiter]

ping

[mylife]

Yup, it’s just a damn tumbleweed.

[mylife]

Beware the Giant Hogweed...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTuJQL8GBqY

[mylife]

Looks like my truck LOL

[Governor Dinwiddie]

article: "Researchers at University of California Riverside took a closer look at why this monster plant is thriving …"

Wait, wait! Let me guess—global warming!
 

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Yes. Giant Hogweed. That is one nasty plant that can kill you. Give it wide berth and plenty of Roundup.
 

[mylife]

Kill it with fire!

[mylife]

Strike by night!

[lapsus calami]

 

 

He also spent several days piloting a boat around picking the bodies of Marines and sailors out of the water and bringing them back to shore for burial. Gruesome duty, but it had to be done.

 

 

[KittyKares]

I knew Gomer Pyle could sing, but I never knew about Festus. What a nice surprise.

[Captain Rhino]

“The only thing sadder than a battle lost is a battle won.”

-Duke of Wellington, after the Battle of Waterloo, 1815-

Tarawa served notice to the Marine Corps and Navy that the Japanese knew how to prepare for and defend determinedly against a direct amphibious assault. It didn’t hurt that the defending force was the Imperial Japanese Navy Special Naval Landing Force (Japanese Marines).

[jmacusa]

Eddie Albert served as an ensign in the Navy in WW2. He piloted a landing barge at Tarawa.

[jmacusa]

I’m old enough to remember “The Outer Limits’’ when it was on prime time. Scariest episode was “The Zanti Misfits’’. About an alien race of horrible little ant like things that come to Earth. It starred a young Bruce Dern.

[wally_bert]

The creature in the pit from classic Dr. Who episode.