In film, it usually goes something like this: Two cowboys are in a standoff on opposite sides of a deserted town road. All is quiet, and a brown tangle of weeds rolls across the screen, kicking up dust and cutting the tension. The tumbleweed would seem a background actor here – quiet, benign, and quickly off screen. The clear danger is whichever weapon the cowboys are carrying. But in reality, it’s the tumbleweed you should watch out for.
Further reading:
PBS
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/why-do-tumbleweeds-tumble
NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/18/603535155/houses-disappeared-when-tumbleweeds-rolled-into-this-california-city
Newsweek
https://www.newsweek.com/california-community-pleads-help-after-tumbleweeds-take-over-town-891153
CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/18/us/tumbleweeds-overrun-town-trnd
KOAA
https://www.koaa.com/news/covering-colorado/tumbleweed-problem-continues-in-pueblo
NHM
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/tumbleweeds-fastest-plant-invasion-in-usa-history.html
Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California
http://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7486.html
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48 Comments
The problem with just driving through a bunch of piled up tumbleweeds on a roadway is… there may be other vehicles stopped and hidden by the pile, other obstacles, or even wildlife using the pileup as cover while they travel from place to place. Single, or a just a few lone tumblers- sure- drive through them (but expect lots of debris in your grill and stuck on your undercarriage). Big pile you can't see over or around? That's where the hidden dangers may be.
I now wanna know what other plants can turn into Tumbleweeds 🤔
nature is just trying to tell americans that the towns should be abandoned
Make camouflage netting out of tumbleweeds and sell it to Ukraine!.. and it's biodegradable🤣
poor denmark, left out on th europ map at 1:33
ATTENTION!:
If you've seen the CGP Grey video you can skip this.
Thems are tribbles.
Unless it’s a small tumbleweed or your vehicle has a higher clearance then I highly suggest that you DO NOT drive over tumblweeds on the road because of the hazard of it catching underneath your vehicle
Russian thistle, this clearly calls for more sanctions! 😛
Yup, there it goes again. Russia invading countries again.
Narrator articulates like she's from the hood…
Not all westerns feature tumble weeds.
I once saw tumbleweeds in my local Costco parking lot in Omaha Nebraska
How do tumble weeds clog sewer drains and culverts
As someone who lives in tumbleweed country, sees them regularly, and finds them kind of annoying (because, like deer, they can just pop out from the ditch and, if you drive over them, they can get caught under the car, and occasionally get stuck against the exhaust where they burn) I find it kind of funny that people will collect and sell them online to people in areas that don’t have them to be used as decoration. I’ve seen them covered in glitter and propped up and decorated like Christmas trees.
I've never seen tumbleweeds in Missouri
I like the tumbleweed expert guy LOL
CGP Grey covered this topic years ago. His tumbleweed videos are still fun to watch.
This country in not real bruh 😂
Burn it with fire ?
a tumbleweed can be 100 years old, and when it finally gets rained on it starts all over again.
Eastern people rake their leaves, western people rake their tumbleweeds
Tumbleweeds to USA from Russia with love
Bullshit! I lived here my whole life and have never seen a tumbleweed!
This is giving huuuuge Emu Wars vibes. I wonder who will win? 😂
*Also the thing being "Russian" makes it even better
Russian tumbleweed invasion, oh the irony lol
This was awesome! Now do kudzu
I prefer CGP grey’s video
I have intimate relations with women’s used underwear. I’d love to get some from the narrator.
Something tells me, this is connected to Elton. 🙄
Thank goodness we do not have tumbleweed in Canada. Too cold for it to grow🤣
For some reason, I find the idea "drowning in tumbleweed" as a funny thought.
They don't always shatter. They often get stuck in a car's grill and have to be pried out.
Amazing video and thank you for breaking it down!! Despite the economic downturn, I'm so happy 😊I have been earning $ 60,000 returns from my $9,000 investment every 21days
Oh, how the tumble weeds….., ….
I have the solution: Just un-tumble the tumble-weed and then you are left with weed. Its america so that will soon all be gone too.
That last bit wasn't accurate. I was driving east on Interstate 90, in Washington State, between the Columbia River and George Washington (that's a small town, named after the founders dog, not the president) anyway the wind was blowing 30 to 40 miles per hour up out of the river gorge, ripping up many tumble weeds. They were large. One ended up jumping the barrier fence by the interstate, it was as large as my car and was just one giant tumbleweed, not a bunch of them together. I was traveling about 60mph in a 70mph zone because of the wind conditions, that tumbleweed smacked on top of my entire car, totally covering all windows for about a second and a half, then bounced off and went into the field across the road. Hit my vehicle like a giant powder puff. An interesting experience. It didn't break up after impacting with me. It did leave alot of tiny bits in my engine compartment that were blowing out of the vents when the A/C was used for months afterwards. [EDITED FOR SPELLING]
I’ve never seen a single tumbleweed here in Florida.
When I first moved to WA state there was a news story/alert saying to be aware of the "radioactive" tumbleweeds – they were close to a nuclear power plant
CGP grey covered this years ago in one of his tangent obsession videos. invasive species are wild in the destruction they can cause
CGP Grey has already made video on tumble weed.
Russian thistle, Putins revenge.
A suburban sprawl forms a nice barrier to catch tumbleweed, indeed.
Looks like there is really really really really nothing going on in the US
Now i want big weed collecting trucks that compress them to firewood
CGP Grey did a whole series about the tumble.
It’s no humbleweed 😢
toop