what is tumbleweed?

Question

the actual plant... i no why films use it. i was just wondrering does it grow round? what plant is it? can you buy it anywhere?

Answer 1

The tumble weed is a plant the grows in desert areas. when the weed grows it grows round. after the tumble weed dies it breaks loose of it roots and rolls with the wind distributing seeds everwhere it rolls, I have seen one in the mojave desert that was big as our car and we ran into it on the highway.

Never knew people would buy a tumble weed
Never heard of a tumble weed store.

Answer 2

Salsola (Saltwort*, Tumbleweed or Russian thistle) is a genus of herbs, subshrubs, shrubs and small trees in the family Amaranthaceae, native to Africa, Asia, and Europe. They typically grow on flat, often dry and/or somewhat saline soils, with some species in saltmarshes. Recent genetic studies (Pyankov et al., 2001) have however shown that the genus as traditionally circumscribed is paraphyletic, and many species are likely to be transferred to other genera in the future.
* Note that the name Saltwort is also used for the unrelated genus Batis.

In several annual species, those known popularly as "tumbleweeds", the plants break away from their roots in the autumn, and are driven by the wind as a light, rolling mass, scattering seed far and wide. The seeds are produced in such large numbers that the plant has not developed protective coatings or food reserves for the coiled plant embryos. The deep, ineradicable taproot survives to grow again the following season.

Answer 3

I always heard it was spread in contaminated crop plantings by Russian immigrants; although it now appears that it was also intentionally planted as a drought-tolerant cattle feed.

I'm not sure about live plants or seeds; but apparently you can buy the whole dried out tumblweed.

http://www.prairietumbleweedfarm.com/

Also, why they don't want it in California

http://www.na.fs.fed.us/fhp/invasive_plants/weeds/slender-russian-thistle.pdf

Answer 4

Creosote bush