Posted on 08/26/2019 6:45:29 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
The K-blocks on i10 near Phoenix helps keep the cars and tumble weeds in play.
LOL
Yeah, I guess they’re six foot tall if you grow them in the bed of a pickup truck and measure them from the ground.
Thanks. He also is in the background on the Emmy Awards show in 2005
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCkmOCsI-hc
Could be worse, could be Giant Hogweeds.
Thanks Great stuff. He was also in the background of the Emmy Awards segment here in 2005 with the song covered by a great man later to be recognized as even greater.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCkmOCsI-hc
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