There Were No Tumbleweeds In The Old West

[@Eric.Swartz]

My dad says he started a job in west Texas in the 70s and drove into the parking lot. He noticed one section without cars and thought it seemed like an ideal place to park. He came out at the end of the day and his car was buried in tumble weeds. That's why no one parked there.

[@assininecomment1630]

Oh ffs...@@RachelWilliams-um1en 🙄

[@bigguy7353]

This video is false. The Old West existed pre 1865 to begin, and part of that was areas that have tons of tumbleweeds.

[@quix66hiya22]

@@bigguy7353but the tumbleweeds weren’t there then. Still in Russia.

[@-oiiio-3993]

@@bigguy7353 They do now, not so then.

[@NightmareNate7]

They did him dirty.

[@RandomTorok]

As a child growing up on the Canadian prairie in the 60s I was very familiar with tumbleweed. I never saw anything the size of the one's you showed. One summers day a group of bored kids decided to build a house out of tumbleweed. We collected the stuff off a fences in the area and piled them up into walls. Unfortunately at one point a gust of wind collapsed the walls and several kids were trapped under a pile of tumbleweed. (I never wore shirts or pants during the Saskatchewan summer) Well every adult from miles around was called into getting us out. It was a very painful summer. One my father laughed about till the day he died.

[@M.M.D.]

I was this many years old when I found out that there were no tumbleweeds in the old west! This blew my mind! When I was a kid, back in 1977, we made a family car trip out west, (I'm still seeing a therapist) and dad brought home a tumbleweed. We used to put Christmas lights in it until it disintegrated.

[@Ainar86]

Rusty? Rusty Griswold? That you?

[@hellomjb]

Holiday roooooooaaaaaad!!

[@davidanderson_surrey_bc]

Let me guess. Dad would draw lots to see who HAD to try to put the star on top, without getting shredded by thorns.

[@tedwalford7615]

Yep. Lived in New Mexico, and decorated tumbleweeds for Christmas.

[@whyjnot420]

I think the way tumbleweed reproduces is quite amazing. It might not be the best plant to have around, but credit where credit is due.

[@salt-emoji]

As someone who cleaned tumblrs in highschool, theyre awful. The only thing that can confidently stop the barbs is leather and the only time you're cleaning them is when it's 100° outside.

[@1pcfred]

Sweat can make leather soft.

[@annwilliams6438]

Ouch.

[@toweypat]

I'm not doing jack squat when it's 100 degrees outside!

[@Zenithxblack]

The devil's bush

[@DarkElfDiva]

High school Tumblrs can't be cleaned. Just spend 10 minutes on that hellsite and you'll agree, I'm sure.

[@kevinmhadley]

Many years ago I was driving across the United States, east to west. Driving in shifts, I was driving in the middle of the night while the others in the car slept. There were not many cars on the road, it was quiet in the car, and I was in that autopilot mode you fall into on long straight highways like that. Then, out of nowhere, a large tumbleweed rolled across the road right in front of me. That shook me to attention and my natural driver reactions woke everyone up. Nothing hurt but my pride.

[@r0cketplumber]

In 1977 after a windstorm, tumbleweeds buried the main entrance of my high school in Colorado Springs all the way to the roof line, building a drift that grew until the late arrivals simply rolled over the building completely. It took earthmoving equipment, wood chippers, and trucks to haul the mess away.

[@davidanderson_surrey_bc]

Because Snow Day was getting a little too predictable.

[@ГеоргиГеоргиев-с3г]

Just build a diverse wall of trees, trees slow down wind and give space for tumbles to fall inside when piled up higher than the trees. Plus wild animals living in said forest could munch on the young tumbles. Just clear it up regularly until you get a forest.

[@l-wook]

Yay no school

[@r0cketplumber]

@@l-wook Nope, the school opened- we just all had to use doors that weren't blocked. It probably was a fire hazard, but we were made of tougher stuff back then.

[@FadeRunnerOG]

@@r0cketplumber No you weren't

[@PeterMancini]

I've been working on a game based in the old west. You would think that through all of my reading I would have come across the fact that tumbleweeds didn't show up until late in the period. Now I'm just blown away which is what I've come to expect from this lovely channel!

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

The old west looked different in a lot of ways, particularly areas in Texas and New Mexico where the entire biome has changed due to the introduction of mesquite and tumbleweed.

[@elizabethnavarre7972]

"Blown" away... ha ha ha!

[@EmilySmirleGURPS]

Your editor deserves a raise.

[@mementomori29231]

Hilarious editor 😂

[@LukasKetner]

fr. That smells like an off-the-clock joke of passion.

[@GodlessVoice]

Or at least a bonus for this episode!

[@callisonjill]

Wish they'd spelled Mennonite correctly.

[@dirtrider88]

@@callisonjill they missed one letter, relax. it could have been a typo

[@Skotzenn]

A few years ago I moved to a ranch in the Arizona desert from New England. I was out putting some tools away on an overcast night when I heard something coming right towards me in the dark, something big, and it was moving fast. It went quiet and I was properly scared when suddenly the scurrying sound picked up again coming towards me with alarming soeed. . . and it was a tumbleweed.

[@brandilking]

Haha too funny. I’m currently living in Phoenix, and when it gets “desert quiet”, it can get spooky when you hear something you can’t quite identify. That would have freaked me out too. 🫣😬

[@GarryCollins-ec8yo]

I lived in Clovis NM and used to watch the huge thunderstorms come across the desert pushing a very tall wall of dust and tumbleweeds. The town had a tumbleweed office to help with the cleanups. They were great to hit with your car, they would explode into fragments and dust.

[@dennisthornton4434]

Exactly and yet we had no tumbleweeds in the Old West. I guess they came after we settled the Old West.

[@TC-hf8hg]

It sounds like glass shattering when that happened to my car once. The tumbleweed was easily bigger than my commuter car.

[@davidanderson_surrey_bc]

One year, the tumbleweeds were so prevalent they buried the tumbleweed office and the staff had to dig an escape tunnel.

[@Jacob-ly8vs]

I spent all my summers from high school through college battling these things in California with lots of roundup, shovels, and pitchforks. It's a fight I've given up on, but I'm glad others have taken up the mantle. These plants are smart, painful, and more prolific than you could ever hope to get a handle on.

[@RachelWilliams-um1en]

Hi, I live in Austin Texas, I would like to keep friendship with you, if you don’t mind 😊😊😊😊😊

[@deathbagel]

There are other plants that form tumbleweeds that are native to Western North America. Here in Nevada our state "flower" is the Sagebrush, which is very capable of forming tumbleweeds when they die, I have seen more of them than I could possibly count.

[@michellecornum5856]

Yes. Russian thistle is not the only one.

[@desperadox7565]

That's what I thought. There can't be only one kind.

[@larrydlam]

Came here to say this. There are many other types of plants that cause tumbleweeds that are native to North America.

[@SUNCITYOUTLAW]

Like tumbling pigweeds, I hate them equally as tumbleweeds.

[@arkroogs90]

Yeah I came here to say this too. I live in the desert of southern California and there are native brush plants that form tumbleweeds.

[@rhov-anion]

That tumbleweed animation was sweet. My aunt lived near Barstow. I remember being excited to see a tumbleweed for the first time... and didn't realize THEY HAVE THORNS. I thought they were fluffy for some reason. Hard lesson learned.

[@jackvalior]

The idea that tumble weed started existing at the later part of the "Old West" era gives me this itch to re-imagine old west stories not just as romanticization of the Western ideals but also as the dying air of a once new world. That this once foreign land has now been so thoroughly infiltrated by the newcomer that little is left to explore except the stories of those around us at the end of an era.

[@Raycloud]

Just set in the modern day.

[@kumarg3598]

Thats malcolm gladwells thinking as well

[@HansMilling]

I played Red Dead Redemption 2, it’s like taking part of a wester. That game and story is just so well built and put together.

[@radiofreeacab]

Wow that sounds incredibly generic

[@jimmychu7917]

​​​@HansMilling it's easily one of the best games ever made, a true piece of fine art. I recommend it to everyone, even people who don't really play video games.

[@anselml2928]

I noticed a increasing usage of metric units as the primary units in your video. As an metric user I appreciate this very much.

[@erzsebetkovacs2527]

Thank you, Joe. I've had no idea that tumbleweeds were and are for Americans what ragweed (Artemisia artemisiifolia) is for Hungarians (my country). Meaning, both of them are a pest, which grows on disturbed but uncultivated soil. It makes perfect sense that tumbleweeds were able to spread on the prairie as more and more people were moving in and starting the cultivate the soil.

[@Ainar86]

Well, the word "weed" is right there in the name of both.

[@Rejid]

Ragweed is also pretty bad in parts of America too! I know because I'm lucky enough to be allergic to it :)

[@SewardWriter]

We've got ragweed in the US, too. My sinuses are currently screaming.

[@MrBizteck]

Ragweed ... as a kid my dad used to pay me to go into the fields and chop the heads off before they flower. Luckily they never affected me. I used to love it. Really cut the crop down to the point my dad got a better price for his hay as it was so high quality. Cows can eat ragweed but it isnt good for them.

[@desperadox7565]

Ragweed is America's revenge for the tumbleweed.😂

[@MikeP2055]

This was so fascinating! I grew up and still live in the west (Utah) and had no idea they were invasive. Hell, I was just outside pulling weeds and threw a tumbleweed away that had blown against the fence, so wild timing. I wonder how the Russian olive tree made it to North America? They're EVERYWHERE out here in the west. For the most part, they're just glorified bushes, but I've seen some big ole proper tree-looking suckers as well. When they bloom in late May/early June, millions of tiny yellow blossoms completely cover them. The aroma of those blossoms is my favorite smell in the world. It's permanently associated with school letting out for summer break and all the shenanigans we'd get into.

[@RachelWilliams-um1en]

Hi, I live in Austin Texas, I would like to keep friendship with you, if you don’t mind 😊😊😊

[@gwynn2528]

This is so cool! The harbor I use to live in would fill up to the brim with a mass load of tumbleweeds. They’d come in silently and then the change of tide would happen and they would disappear like they never existed. All of us on our boats always wanted to wrangle a few and then drag them out to more open waters to light on fire for a little bonfire. We did not, thus we are still alive to tell the tale.

[@mskellyrlv]

Great video! I never realized what a relatively recent phenomenon tumbleweeds are. Seems like they'd make a great renewable fuel source - plus a tremendous source of cadmium, for anyone looking for extra cadmium to attempt to get rid of without poisoning the biosphere! You might look into a similar invasive species for a future video: prickly pear cactus. It seems like prickly pear is almost as much a symbol of the Old West as tumbleweeds were thought to be. However, my wife and I went on a Mediterranean cruise earlier this year, and visited several spots from Naples southward along the Italian mainland coast, and a number of Sicilian islands, including Sicily itself. We were astonished at the fact that the dominant plant species, by far, was prickly pear cactus. Having lived in the southwestern U.S. half our lives, we were quite familiar with the plant, but never, ever saw it in such quantity over here. Turns out that it isn't native to Italy or Sicily, but was brought there by Spaniards in some century or other. They now have enough to supply the whole world with it, if the world could think of something to use it for. Maybe it could be dumped on top of tumbleweeds to keep them from tumbling...

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

Ah, you just weren't looking in the right spots then, because pear is a huge problem in Texas. There are places where no grass or other plants grow, it's an entire monoculture of pear in giant clumps ranging in size between a truck and a house, surrounded by bare soil (or hard pan/rock due to topsoil erosion as a result). Other places still have native vegetation surviving but are so overrun by pear that large swaths of land are effectively impassable on foot...it's like a cactus maze without an actual path.

[@chrismuir8403]

They are native to the US west and Mexico, and here they usually don't cause problems as there are natural predators' here. The small pads (size of your hand) are harvested and de-thorned and cooked for food. Quite good, with a green bean flavor, called "Nopales". It grows beautiful flowers which, if pollenated, form tasty fruit that has to be dethorned, peeled and the seeds strained out. Makes a really tasty ice cream.

[@timholden6575]

I live in the Centra Oregon high desert. Tumbleweeds are everywhere. They're horribly annoying and a pain in the butt to control. Between these and Cheat Grass, the yardwork is never done.

[@swordmonkey6635]

I used to visit my aunt and uncle near LaPine and we'd go to Fort Rock every now and then. The delineation between green forest and desert is crazy. lol

[@LisaEichler-Johnson]

I never knew before this video that they were real!!! I thought it was a silly movie troupe!

[@bobharris7401]

Absolutely great video as always. However, this one struck home. My Russian wife and I visited the southwest 25 years ago a found tumbleweed on the road and took it by plane back to FL, where we proudly display it. We will never look at our prize the same way again. 😜

[@RachelWilliams-um1en]

Hi, I live in Austin Texas, I would like to keep friendship with you, if you don’t mind 😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@joshhigh8488]

One thing I've always enjoyed about your channel is you put Learning first. You present the knowledge, and let the jokes fall naturally where they land. The humor doesn't feel forced like other edu-tainment channels.

[@dennisthornton4434]

What knowledge. He has no proof to back up what he's saying. He needs to learn. A kid in first grade no more than he does.

[@Dad......]

​@@dennisthornton4434 Enlighten us. He who has such a loose grasp on the English language, regail us with your knowledge. Educate us, if you will. I wait, with bated breath, for your enumerated list of mistakes Joe made in this video, and your sources for contradicting information. I do doubt it's coming though. Probably just a weak ad hominem attack.

[@0wl999]

​@@Dad...... Oof! Brutal riposte!😂

[@bigguy7353]

​@@Dad......To begin, which is why I stopped watching it, the Old West existed pre 1865, so I'd love to know which source told him it just up and "started" in 1865. Intrinsically attached to that, in areas pre 1865 that were indeed the "Old West" in about the 6 or 7 true iterations of the frontier after 1816 or so, there were the areas that now include Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and others pre-statehood. There are, demonstrably and empirically, a sh*tload of tumbleweeds in those areas. If I had continued watching the video instead of heading to the comments section to attempt to correct not the lies, as I can't prove malicious intent, but the absolute falsehood of a premise this entire video starts with, I may have been able to compile a longer litany like you really seemed excited to receive. Alas, I cannot. BS tends to waste my time, and I have more reliable sources of actual facts that I could consult at any time, which I will.

[@bigguy7353]

​@@0wl999Read my response. You may find brutality is relative to what weapons you wield.

[@WillTellU]

You know, you always only see the dried up tumbleweeds, the ones that actually tumble, but the actual plants is pretty nice. I never actually connected them with the ones growing here before.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

They're not a particularly pretty plant on their own but they're not eyesores either, and while they're still tender and green they can make a desert landscape look temporarily lush. It pays you back in spades when it becomes woody and dries out though.

[@benparker9313]

I had to laugh when after the entire bit about Wynd Witch sounding like a metal band, he revealed that they are actually called amaranths, when Amaranthe is an actual metal band. Great Vid as usual!

[@clueless4085]

I've watched every video you've ever put out (including on nebula) and can't get enough. I've even rewatched most of them. I love what you do and the way you do it. I've learned about and become interested in SO MUCH stuff that I wouldn't have otherwise. Thanks for all your hard work. All the best, Joe. I look forward to the next upload.

[@drewharrison6433]

I am currently at war with tumbleweed. As well as big sagebrush, which is native to the southwest but, not to the plateau I live on. Supposed to be a huge grassland but, some sheepherders overgrazed it for decades and now the two most common plants are Russian thistle and big sagebrush.

[@mpetersen6]

And that's why ranchers hate sheep herders. A lot if the desertification of the Middle East, North Africa and other regions has been partially blamed on sheep and goat herding.

[@sarahrosen4985]

This is interesting. I would expect goats to be perfect for eating into extinction young tumbleweed plants. Living in the Levant, our mayor brings in a herd of sheep every spring to graze the undergrowth to (so far) eliminate brush fires in our city. 47% of the municipal area is designated as parks and natural spaces so we have A LOT of weeds and brush. Win-win for everyone.

[@madoldbatwoman]

Here in Wales, where there are more sheep than people, the struggle for upland meadows is real.

[@lipstickcloud]

Best of luck in your war efforts.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

@@sarahrosen4985 Goats are far better for this than sheep, and better for the environment in general. Sheep are worthless and will only eat pretty grass.

[@lipstickcloud]

"For a tumbleweed, death is just the beginning." Beautifully put, I love your flair for the dramatic. From a fellow Gen X kid.

[@jeanjaz]

I went to high school in Marana, AZ (near Tucson). Even in the 70s, the tumbleweeds would stack up against fences and houses and roll across roads. They were very hard to clean up and get rid of.

[@DarkElfDiva]

Yeah there's an episode of Emergency! (a show from the 70s) where they have to clear tumbleweeds away from a house.

[@jeanjaz]

@@DarkElfDiva I love that show! Talked to a young paramedic one time while being taken to the hospital in an ambulance - he was saying it was so unrealistic. He just didn't know how things were actually done in those days. Ha ha

[@Max1ma14]

The tumbleweed video - the history leson I didn't know i needed. I had no idea I could find 20 minutes about tumblewees so interesting!

[@PicoPistolero]

Excellent piece. I live in a major, old mining district in San Bernardino County, CA, in the High Desert. I use tumbleweeds to start fires in my wood stove, so I can speak to their flammability!

[@margauxf4321]

Oh hey I just moved from Victorville! I'd joke that I was growing tumbles in my backyard because I quickly gave up trying to get rid of them.

[@geoffreypiltz271]

Fighting a foreign species with another foreign species worked in Australia to control the Prickly Pear cactus (they used a moth called appropriately Cactoblastis cactorum).

[@wiseoldfool]

And cane toads are a big problem.

[@gorillaau]

​ @wiseoldfool Ahhh. Yes. The Cane toad. It was introduced the control the cane beetle. Long story short, it didn't work.

[@enider]

It’s a dangerous path to start down. The rabbit was introduced to Australia to control an invasive toad population but then became an even more invasive species

[@MickeyGee73]

​@@gorillaauSo disgusting when you go out with a torch at night in tropical Qld..Trillions of giant slimy glowing eyes..

[@gorillaau]

@@MickeyGee73 Don't go outside at night, or the toads will get you!

[@brandilking]

My dog and I were traveling I-40 through TX, stopped for gas and a potty break near Vega. Piper saw a tumble weed coming for her while walking, and I’ve never seen a pit bull run so fast for the car. 😂

[@JuanDaMajikOne]

Hahaha! That’s funny!!

[@Soundbrigade]

Shure it was a pit bull and not a poodle or any of the many kinds of handbag dogs.

[@brandilking]

@@Soundbrigade lol the “mean looking” dogs are the biggest babies. She barked, it moved, she RAN 🤣

[@Soundbrigade]

@@brandilking Guess a boxer would haver played with it for hours though. But I notice that bid dogs seldom bark, while small ones ALWAYS make a lot of noise. Been to the West 3 times but I cannot recall we ever saw any tumbleweed.🤔

[@magisterrleth3129]

​@Soundbrigade They really are everywhere, and they show themselves on windy days. I'm just lucky they've basically paved the entire valley the city sits in, so they never build up big swarms like I hear about just on the other side of the mountains.

[@RobertSavello]

As an American in the minority who uses the metric system in their daily life, I greatly appreciate that you are using the metric system. Don't stop. It's great.

[@GeoffMlinarcik]

Another educational & entertaining video @JoeScott (kind of what I'm here for)! :) Your channel is my go-to for guilt free educational escapism... :) I didn't know I was interested in tumbleweeds!

[@joescott]

I didn't either until I looked into it!

[@Legit_Nic]

I’ve been watching you since my freshman year of high school. I’m now about to go back to school to do what I really love. Thank you for inspiring me :)

[@nancycowell-miller4321]

Loved this! Keep shaking things up (but don't let the seeds get away)!

[@CortexNewsService]

"If you think it can't get worse, then you haven't been awake in the 2020s." Truest statement ever made.

[@mikewhitcomb6558]

I used to live in the Antelope Valley, where the houses were swallowed by tumble weeds. In the less inhabited areas east of Palmdale/Lancaster, you can literally drive through 10-15 foot high tunnels where they plow them off to the side of the road. And now for whatever reason they are taking over my property in southwest Colorado the last couple of years when they were never a problem before

[@absentmindedprof]

Hey Joe! Another invasive species you might want to investigate is crownvetch. Back in the 70s the Pennsylvania Highway Dept planted crownvetch in the state Highway system's berms. Turns out this plant grows like wildlife.

[@alexc836]

I knew almost none of this, and I have an avid interest in history. Nice to see you changing up the topics like this. Your videos are always interesting.

[@jonedwards2107]

Was in the Air Force in Wyoming, lived in a trailer on the southern edge of Cheyenne. Used a tumbleweed for a Christmas tree, tied a single bullet in it. Had a cartridge in a bare tree.

[@wiseoldfool]

I see what you did there!

[@onyourwing5696]

...wipes a tear from the laughter... thnx for that!

[@jonathanhansen3709]

When I was growing up in Central California, in the mid-1960s, I remember people making tumbleweed ‘snowmen’ at Christmas time, by stacking three tumbleweeds together, and spray painting them white. They put a hat, scarf, eyes and buttons on it using different items. But it kind of look like a snowman only made with tumbleweeds.

[@cgrable8342]

We used the same technology in 1959, we stacked them up, sprayed them green and hung home made decorations on it. It was our Christmas tree. (it was a lean year)

[@_Aarius_]

14:40 thoss cane toads are also a massive problem on the east coast of Australia, they were introduced for the same reason and took over

[@Erin-000]

I loved this episode. I know the more extreme stuff gets more views for you, but these are my favorite by a landslide. I appreciate them being made despite the lack of love from the algorithm.

[@feelincrispy7053]

I wouldn’t call 1M views last episode “lack of love from the algo”

[@Erin-000]

@@feelincrispy7053 I wasn't speaking from opinion. Joe has mentioned several times that it is hard to justify making videos on certain topics that are interesting but aren't extreme. In Joe's words, "just sort by most popular." His last video getting 1 million views isn't surprising, it's called the END of the smartphone. If this video gets a million views in 1 week I'll be surprised.

[@michellecornum5856]

Here in Colorado, we grow both Russian thistle and Kochia (Kochia scoparia) as our tumbleweeds. I only know this because I am allergic to both -- one when it is both green and when it dries out, and the other, only when it is dry. I have forgotten which is which, because it doesn't really matter, I simply avoid both.

[@joachimgoethe7864]

A lot of the palm tree species in Southern California are not native either. They were indigenous to the Iberian peninsula and planted in the 20's and 30's.

[@jackprier7727]

Yet they are not spiky and spreading and pushing-out other vegetation.

[@theflyingdutchguy9870]

​@@jackprier7727depends on how severe the storm is😂

[@aaronmcmillen8140]

​​@@jackprier7727is the OP's comment a competition in your mind? An educational comment like they posted ( I didn't know that about palm trees, thanks for the info!) doesn't need to be qualified with *one is worse then the other*. But sure, more dangerous or whatever your point was here. You must be a peach in conversation with your need to one up others. 😂

[@mpetersen6]

Some were imported for ornamental reasons. And others for Ag reasons. Date Palms. A Julia Child episode even had her in a cherry picker picking dates.

[@jackielinde7568]

Yeah, but most Palms don't become invasive species, nor do they grow and spread like Kudzu or Russian Thistle. They're quite content to let Humans move them around.

[@HissyFitPetTherapy]

A suicidal bush from Russia….fascinating! I learn so much from you…and the Power of your Editor!

[@chasindigo]

Australian native animals have worked out that the cane toad hearts aren't poisonous (yet) and flip the cane toad over and eat that part. Amazing isn't it.

[@marlonmoncrieffe0728]

Yes, nature abhors a vacuum. Eventually, things rebalance.

[@malootua2739]

That IS amazing Did you know when they brought foxes to Australia they quickly changed color to match the envuroment?

[@jooleebilly]

@@malootua2739Awesome, I didn't know that! Not surprised that the matching colors were selected for because they were more likely to survive, but I didn't know they brought them to Australia at all. And how they survived dingos and other predators.

[@revmsj]

Yeah then they developed a super Aussie ass crocodile Dundee accent and a drinking problem!

[@malootua2739]

@@revmsj that's what I love about them the most

[@abbym613]

The tumbleweed animation was a PERFECT addition to the video. Your editor is amazing!! 🎉❤❤

[@mpetersen6]

There are other invasive plant species. Kudzu is the poster child. Another one is Wild Cucumber. It will grow over everything given the chance. It has been used as an ornamental. Can actually be quite pretty. It can look like it has frosting.

[@kacheek9101]

It's only called invasive if its non-native. Otherwise its just aggressive (Virginia creeper is the native I battle)

[@oregonsenior4204]

Invasives? Cheatgrass - another miserable, flammable grass. English Ivy is no slouch-- will strangle trees. And Himalayan Blackberry-- North America has native blackberries, but the Himalayan blackberry out-competes them. In the PNW, it will take over lots. It will cover houses if you don't cut it back.

[@MickeyGee73]

We get a kind of tumbleweed in South Australia..They are sharp, but not painfully..and will build up overnight to cover your house in the right combo of environmental conditions..

[@benhobe]

We were having a squadron picnic in Fallon, NV. It was windy (actually formed a sand storm later), and a tumble weed went rolling though the softball field. A young sailor decided it would be fun to tackle it - it was not fun (for him). Everyone else was ROFL 😆

[@andyreznick]

Good one.

[@rodturner6759]

I saw many tumbleweeds quite often in Arizona both in the southern and northern part of the state...

[@darthsirrius]

I live in the old west, right in the heart of Arizona, & I have to say, the first time I saw a tumbleweed cross the street while I was driving by myself, I burst into hysterical laughter. I mean it's a city now, we've got skyscrapers and fiber optic internet, but every once in awhile a tumbleweed will still roll across the street, and I still laugh, every time lol.

[@SmartStart24]

Lmao literally had the same experience when I moved to New Mexico. Nobody understood why I was so tickled 😂 (I grew up in the big city)

[@surly_mel]

I don't know how you and your team come up with such interesting content, fantastic stuff! Had no idea tumbleweeds were an invasive species.

[@SupahGeck]

I've always found the story of Kudzu interesting, it's "The vine that ate the south" but it mostly pops up in disturbed areas and the boundaries between forests and fields, meaning it has a tendency to grow where we are. If you drive on a southern highway you'll see kudzu vines 30ft high but usually if you trek even 20ft into those woods the kudzu will barely penetrate. It's a pioneer species that's good at generating biomass and is actually in the bean family, so it can fix nitrogen with the help of a bacteria to build soil fertility for the next species to come in. It's definitely a problem but it's maybe an embellished one. I think the biggest loss is it crowds out the native grape or passionflower vines that would grow nearly as large and also provide edible fruit.

[@robo5013]

Kudzu was imported specifically for the reasons you mentioned as a way to replace nitrogen in the soil, not for decoration. It was planted in the fall after harvest as it grows all year round and helped combat soil erosion over the winter and when plowed into the fields in the spring added nitrogen back into the soil for that year's crops.

[@annwilliams6438]

It sounds like it could be an excellent source of nitrogen for the soil if if could be chopped up, and processed / mulched properly?? (Like the previous commenter spoke about ploughing it back into the soil - but on a bigger basis and transportable.) Sorry, I know little about large scale agriculture so have no idea if this would ever / even be feasible.

[@toweypat]

@@annwilliams6438 Not a bad idea at all. Livestock can eat it, so maybe that's the way to go.

[@DennisNieves-fm4sl]

I drove through a big one in Arizona that rolled, tumbled, right in front of me driving at 70 mph. It turned to dust but damaged my grill and paint. I was happy that it didn't smash my windshield or made me lose control, but was hell expensive to buff out and replace a plastic grill.

[@stomtrooper_34]

Here in Ukraine we call about 15-16 different species of steppe plants "perekotypole". It is better to translate this name as "fields roller" than how Joe translated it

[@_D_P_]

What is the untranslated word you use for "fields roller"?

[@Dockhead]

@@_D_P_tumbleweeds…

[@_D_P_]

@@Dockhead ...I obviously meant the Ukrainian word.

[@davidanderson_surrey_bc]

When the wind is blowing in the right direction, you could attach tiny cluster munitions to them, with a remote detonator. Let the weeds roll over to the Russian trenches and then set them off. OR... attach small weights to their branches and let them roll over a minefield to clear the area.

[@karinwolf3645]

That would weigh them down so they won't tumble. Good try, though. 🤷🙄

[@keilius]

I have a bunch trying to grow in my backyard here in CO. Thankfully, they're actually easy to uproot by hand when they're young, but they grow thick so it's time-consuming.

[@michaelkalbfleisch4492]

The Outer Limits managed to make tumbleweeds terrifying in their episode “Cry of Silence”

[@louisegagnon7840]

I saw tumbleweeds for the first time in this episode. I was young at the time and since then I’m terrified of this plant . Never saw one in real life because I live in eastern Canada.

[@dehavillandcanadatwinotter9621]

Never even seen that, but for some reason I always found tumbleweeds creepy and eerie. Maybe because of the desolate nature of the Wild West and desert and all that.

[@justcherie]

Thanks for this video. I knew that tumbleweeds weren’t native, but I didn’t realize that they had such a late arrival. I lived in western Nebraska for almost 10 years and they’re everywhere there. Back in the 80s, a friend of mine moved to Florida. When she came back for a visit, she carried one back with her on the plane. She felt like it was a reminder of home.

[@crystalgreen3677]

Sagebrush is native to the northwest. It has supported our sage grouse since the indigenous peoples were here. Had one of those “tumbleweeds” go through my radiator near Mt Home AFB in Idaho. Our prisoners grow it (except during COVID when the teachers (my husband and his coworkers) had to do the growing.

[@pantheo9457]

the tumbleweed animation was amazing, i applaud the editor!

[@paulhaynes8045]

Very interesting - I knew nothing of any of that. I didn't even know there were tumble weeds in Hungary, and I've lived there off and on for over 20 years! It's weird (although horribly typical) that this classic symbol of the Wild West is an invasive species! Thanks, Joe.

[@nixnox4852]

I worked in SW Kansas agriculture for a few years, some things to note is that there are multiple "tumbleweeds", or plants that use wind and rolling behavior to spread seeds farther. Russian thistle (Salsola tragus, invasive) is the most famous tumbleweed (generally forming the roundest ones), and currently the most prolific. As mentioned, as the leaves are more spikes than leaves, and this gets worse as it matures with the flowers being yet more spikes. The low leaf surface area makes it hard to get good herbicide coverage. It's in the Amaranth family, which tends to have highly irritating pollen for which allergies are likely, though this seemed to have the least pollen compared to the next 2 cousins. Kochia (Bassia scoparia, invasive) also produces a major portion of current "tumbleweeds". This is known for becoming a striking red in the autumn, and there are some ornamental varieties planted for their color. Also in the Amaranth family, they produce a large amount of pollen that is especially bad for those prone to allergies. Last I checked, Kochia has 4 *different* modes of glyphosate resistance that had been discovered (independent genetics, they don't have all 4 at once. So far...). The mode I came across was for kochia to push the absorbed chemical into the leaftips, which would die, leaving the rest of the leaf alive. They are also fairly "hairy", which further adds to resisting herbicide droplets, and of course the leaves like to form a tiny spiky tip as they mature, with the flowers being spikes. Most "pigweeds", especially Tumble Pigweed (Amaranthus albus, invasive) are also prone to becoming tumbleweeds. There are many pigweeds native to the US (Amaranthus palmeri and Amaranthus retroflexus). The pollen from these seem to be between russian thistle and kochia in "badness". The leaves don't really become spiny, but as it matures it does make clusters of spines for "flowers". As you've probably noticed, all three weeds above are in the Amaranth family. They all like to form small spines, produce very allergenic pollen, form dense bushes, grow taller than christmas trees if fed like corn, and seem to quickly develop herbicide resistance. Once they bush up, you can kill the outside, but the middle tends to survive. Many times plants you thought were dead start sprouting new growth 2-3 weeks later. If you don't kill them early, while they are the size of a quarter, they become very hard to kill. So if your crop isn't perfect and able to shade them out (there's a reason why corn being 10ft tall is so useful), they become a horrible tangled spiky mess that will jam and burn up combines if you try to harvest through them. I fucking hate these things. Some of the larger mustards can also act as tumbleweeds, but are generally less likely to do so, and much smaller. The most common large mustard I saw was Tansy mustard (Descurania pinnata, native), but there is also a "Tumble Mustard" (Sisymbrium altissimum, invasive). Mustard pollen allergy isn't nearly as common as amaranth or grass, though it can still stink if you have a lot of it (like canola crops) Many grasses also make use of tumbling to spread seed, in particular many of you have problem seen Tumblegrass (Eragrostis spectabilis, native) or something like it piling up against a building somewhere. I typically saw this happen around schools.

[@eternalstudent7461]

Thanks for sharing this interesting info! 🙂

[@than217]

I didn't even think Tumbleweeds were a real thing until I moved to Colorado. Since moving here I've driven on the highway several times when there were so many flying across you could barely see the pavement below them.

[@NandR]

Yeah kudzu is our tumbleweed. Luckily it's easier to isolate as we aren't fighting a plant that travels with the wind. But there are just whole areas of the forest that are covered in it. One of my first memories is asking about these two giant green things near our house. Someone jokingly said they were giants. They were dead pine trees covered in kudzu. You'll constantly see old houses covered in the stuff. And when they dry out in the winter they not only turn the area a dark brown and grey eyesore, but they can be a fire hazard as well. Plus the whole ruining the native environment thing.

[@MarylandFarmer.]

I regret I can only like this once. Awesome storytelling Joe!

[@tonyrainbolt9388]

Your videos are always great. But this is the first time in a long while I stuck around for the commercial. Probably the best plug for Brilliant I've seen yet! Is is odd to get kudos for a commercial?

[@catiefast942]

I had no idea about all this info about tumble weeds! So interesting. I always learn so much from your videos. Plus, you are entertaining!

[@gingershryock5205]

I once saw a bunch of pinestraw all connected together and rolling down the road. It was cute.

[@185MDE]

So all the old west movies my grandpa made watch… my entire life is built on lies!

[@alancrawford8749]

Speedometer on a DeLorean doesn't go over 85. That broke my mind.

[@bishopp14]

​@@alancrawford8749Wait, are you serious??

[@catmomjewett]

🤭 I still love tumbleweeds! 😢 Just finished watching video. Just broke up with tumbleweeds. 🤯

[@_Ben___]

How is the comment from 5 days ago?

[@dang9668]

Welcome to America: fake it till you make it, it’s all built on lies! 😂🎉

[@herrunsinn774]

02:21 Oh ya, Joe... I'm sure in 1880, self-sealing manilla envelopes with a nifty "open here" pull tab and a plastic bubble wrap lining were very popular for mailing weed samples. 😅🤣😂

[@mikepatterson6416]

This was actually very interesting Joe! Great work 👍 Took my mind off my father's congestive heart failure for a little while. Thanks man.

[@mikepatterson6416]

@benjamingarrett1175 Well said. My father spent 3 years fighting during the Korean War and a year on the front lines as a Marine Corp Seargant. It's a big torch to carry forward. But I will do the best I can. Thank you for your words. They help as you apparently know.

[@shedlife1745]

Thanks so much for this channel. I love these topics. It's so interesting to know how we have been miss lead. Even if it's not by design.

[@Sentinel3D]

I grew up with tumbleweeds in Indiana. I don't think I've seen one in 30 years though. And when I did see them, they were rare. I was thinking that you were going to say that one way to deal with them was to mulch them finely and mix it into fertilizer to get the cadmium back into the soil.

[@revspikejonez]

Cadmium? You sure about that?

[@Erin-000]

@@revspikejonez 12:56

[@eekee6034]

@@revspikejonez I don't know about cadmium specifically, but some elements which are toxic in high concentrations can be essential in small quantities. Copper is one of these; it's essential for brain development.

[@dannyarcher6370]

@@eekee6034 Note to self: More copper.

[@WilliamHaisch]

Usable farmland will get the chemical cocktail that kills most non-crop plants. The problem our family has is with Palmer Amaranth, Ragweed, and water hemp. They are resistant to glyphosate (i.e. Roundup) and several other herbicides.

[@Leningrad_Underground]

You have no idea how relieved I am to hear this.

[@godfreydaniel6278]

I live in New Mexico - the scene of much western history and location of MANY western movies. Trust me - tumbleweed is VERY common - there are MANY places where one can find it piled up against highway fencing, as the mesh catches it like miles of fishing net, as high winds and desert landscape go together like dog logs and flies...

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

There's no need to trust you, he said as much in the video that all of the west had been overrun. They just weren't there in the frontier days. Howdy from West Texas, where strong winds blow because New Mexico sucks lol

[@danielclemens1850]

I cant give you a precise reason why but this video took me back 3-4 years to when I first subscribed to you. Keep it up.

[@artdonovandesign]

A fascinating subject when covered by Joe! As always.

[@RachelWilliams-um1en]

Hi, I live in Austin Texas, I would like to keep friendship with you, if you don’t mind 😊😊

[@rickkaylor7949]

Good educational video. Living in the west I've always known tumbleweeds. Another evasive plant in California is black mustard (also edible) it is everywhere. At least it's pretty. I was driving just south of Bakersfield a few years ago and during a windstorm there were so many tumbleweeds going across Highway 99 that traffic came to a standstill. It was like an alien invasion.

[@RachelWilliams-um1en]

Hi, I live in Austin Texas, I would like to keep friendship with you, if you don’t mind 😊😊😊😊😊

[@julians7268]

Eric at Internet Comment Etiquette has the ad read game figured out. He puts a lot of work into it though. Not sure if that would work for every channel but every channel could learn something from him I'm sure. Loved the video! Always do.

[@RachelWilliams-um1en]

Hi, I live in Austin Texas, I would like to keep friendship with you, if you don’t mind 😊😊

[@julians7268]

@@RachelWilliams-um1en keep friendship?

[@RachelWilliams-um1en]

@@julians7268 where are you from ?

[@julians7268]

@@RachelWilliams-um1en Armenia

[@RachelWilliams-um1en]

@@julians7268 I live in Austin Texas, what about you?

[@glenmorrison8080]

12:34 Did my PhD at UC Riverside in the department where this work was done. Norm is a wonderful scientist and an even more wonderful person. Same goes for Shana, the main author on those studies.

[@bhami]

As a bicyclist and dog walker, I'm a lot more concerned about puncture vine (goathead, Tribulus terrestris). Please consider doing a video about that.

[@eclectichoosier5474]

We had those where I grew up. Nasty, nasty things. I dug them out whenever I could find them. (In the early stages, when they hadn't made thorns, yet. After they did, I lit fires on them whenever I could. When I couldn't do that, I just avoided that spot until the next year.)

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

Goat heads aren't quite as invasive or pose nearly as much of a threat as the tumbleweed (though, you won't think that when you step on one or have to fix a flat). There are two types of weevils that will eat them, one will bore into the center of the vine itself and the other bores into the seed. You can order these weevils online, and oddly enough, my backyard in West Texas already has them. I was about to order some and out of curiosity I inspected a few plants and seeds, sure enough they had the telltale holes of these weevils. They don't make much of an impact, unfortunately. Herbicide and physical removal are the only effective methods of control. Other fun plants to deal with in areas that goat heads and tumbleweeds are a problem...the sand burr (they blend in well with bermuda grass making them difficult to control), khaki weed (not as painful or difficult to spot, but grows faster and seeds are impossible to remove from soil), mesquite (also not a native plant and extremely costly and difficult to control), and more recently, the toxic african rue (which has so far been extremely resistant to even the most effective herbicides, making it one of the most costly weeds to control).

[@DrachenGothik666]

I got to see a tumbleweed "stampede" during a Haboob one hot, dry summer when I was on my way to a doctor's appointment in (I _think_ it was) 2016. For those who don't know what that is, a Haboob is a dust/windstorm (the word comes from Arabic, apparently). The sky had gone yellow & dark, there was a yellow haze on the air & the wind came up, sandblasting everything in it's path. Well, along with the wind & dust came 100's of tumbleweeds, rollin', rollin', rollin' across the highway. It was a very strange, even creepy, event.

[@Nefville]

Years back my sister and I were driving across country. We had driven for days and never saw a tumbleweed. One day I was driving and she was asleep, I was getting passed by a semi and I saw a tumbleweed blowing diagonally towards the road. I woke my sister up and said "hey do you want to see a tumbleweed" and the second she looked up I hit it at 80mph and it exploded all over the front of the car. She screamed, it was hilarious. Semi had me blocked. 🤷‍♂🤣

[@SmokeyChipOatley]

I've lived in the southern California desert among an endless sea of tumbleweeds my whole life and it always makes me laugh whenever I hear people get excited over seeing them. I mean I get it. I understand some people go their whole lives only seeing them in movies and tv so I'm not making fun of anyone necessarily. They're just such a nuisance that the idea of anyone going "Ooo-ooo! Tumbleweed!" is hilarious to me

[@Nefville]

@@SmokeyChipOatley We're from Kentucky. Hopefully that explains it lol. And young at the time. Like the desert itself, the novelty wore off fast. I am glad we don't have to deal with tumbleweeds here in KY because yeah they are an absolute nightmare - instead we have the vine that ate the south to contend with. Only difference is there's zero novelty to Kudzu. Humans can be so dumb sometimes.

[@SmokeyChipOatley]

@@Nefville You know, I'm actually glad you shared your story because it reminded me of some good friends I met at a music festival in NYC. We hit it off so well that we decided to all go together to Coachella festival the following year. On the drive home from picking them up at the airport they all pointed and exclaimed "WHOA A TUMBLEWEED!!" over seeing one bounce across the road lol. I remember being just as bewildered then as I was reading your comment lol.

[@themexis]

01:31 "Can turn a small wildfire into a nightmare" ohh...LITERALLY !! 🤯

[@TheNotoriousCommenter]

A perfect example of the little thing in life, extremely interesting an insightful point, love the vids Joe❤

[@Golden_SnowFlake]

Editor the REALM MVP of this video. 1:43

[@petuniasevan]

My husband's family is from Bon Homme County South Dakota. The farmers there in 1877 ordered flax seed from the old country (Ukraine) and it came complete with weed seeds: Kali tragus or Russian Thistle. We know it as Tumbleweed. Of course, Bon Homme County does not wish to be associated with this pernicious weed so they keep quiet about it....

[@Elbereth42]

Someone should make a video about that!

[@PadraigTomas]

Bon Homme County? Do you mean Bon Homme County, the home the Tumbling-Bon-Homme-County-Weed?

[@sideshowratt]

I grew up vacationing in rural far-west Texas and everybody out there is taught to identify and pull up baby tumbleweeds. And they do pop up literally everywhere. They're like dandelions.

[@tessiepinkman]

Fantastic video, Joe! Since I'm Swedish I didn't have a clue of the scope of the problems tumbleweeds cause for the US. I never thought of looking for any information about it. Sounds pretty scary, actually. Especially now, when we're gonna see more extreme weather, and more fires, going forward. I really hope that you guys come up with something to stop these living fire hazards :)

[@BryanByBike]

Have you heard about Cover Crops? They're used to prevent soil erosion & improve soil quality after harvesting the primary crop. Maybe they could help slow the spread of tumbleweed by covering the soil preventing the seeds from germinating.

[@jeffafa3096]

There are a lot of stories about invasive species that completely wreck eco-systems. Like the Nile Perch in Egypt. And in my job I also encounter an invasive species every day: Pennywort. It's devastating to water management and ecology in The Netherlands...

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Well... if or when you retire, I might recommend about anywhere EXCEPT Florida... Thanks to the exotic animals trades going unchecked for decades, there are probably still thousands of invasive species in that state alone... from lionfish and apple snails to pythons and cane toads... kudzu and the list just keeps going. It might feel like you never left the office or some jack-ass invented a perfectly customized corner of Hell just for you. ;o)

[@-oiiio-3993]

Cane toads.

[@-oiiio-3993]

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 All of that pales in comparison to the invasive humans.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@-oiiio-3993 Maybe so... BUT if they're your "big complaint resource" there's some fine territory WEST of the Mississippi... lots of space to choose from... fewer species over all as soon as you get out past Kansas or thereabouts... all the way through Death Valley for legitimately obvious reasons. ;o)

[@-oiiio-3993]

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 I reside in a rather westward locale, myself.

[@nerdaccount]

North Dakota here... they are nuts especially when the wind is high and the get stopped by some fence and they really clump up. They are attractive plants when green. They do burn easily, so keeping a few around as fire starters can help.

[@firefool125]

The tumbleweed being a highly invasive species that is super problematic actually fits perfectly as a symbol of the westward expansion driving the Wild West

[@punchkitten874]

You really need to breathe

[@SpahGaming]

maybe we are the invasive species...

[@markbeames7852]

🤣🤣 @@punchkitten874

[@markbeames7852]

homo sapien sapien is, @@punchkitten874

[@dork_mork6953]

Fr fr

[@michaelkelley6158]

That animation was AWESOME! Great job Editor!

[@sidguernsey1393]

Shout out to the editor guy, the animated bit was 10/10 🙂

[@lindaseel9986]

I always heard of Tumble Weed as Sage Brush. I thought it was literally wild Sage. Like we use to season our Thanksgiving turkey. Live and learn. Thanks Joe.

[@DrachenGothik666]

You weren't entirely wrong. Sagebrush does grow in big bushes, but, as far as I know, it doesn't detach when it's dead & dry to roll across the Prairie. Instead, it can grow in one place for up to a 100 years, as it grows a long taproot that can reach to the water table. It _is_ related to Culinary Sage, but I wouldn't recommend using it on your food--it's rather bitter. It might even be the plant that Tumbleweeds/Russian Thistle is hybridizing with to form those giant Tumbleweeds. Pity that Joe didn't tell us which plant it was mixing with to get that big. I looked it up & apparently, it's an _Australian_ Tumbleweed species that the Russian one hybridized with, called Salsola australis. So, not the Sagebrush.

[@lindaseel9986]

@@DrachenGothik666 Thank you so much. I was seriously wondering if the culinary sage I have growing by my back door was going to turn into one of those monsters! 😀