Wildflowers of Ainsworth: Tumbleweed

I was patiently waiting for this plant in my garden to bloom so I could identify it.


(Click on images to enlarge)

… patiently waiting for it to bloom …



… and then I took a better look and saw that the stupid thing was blooming. The flowers are so tiny and dull you hardly notice them. And very difficult to photograph.



That crummy picture was the best out of many, and I'm not going to waste any more of my life trying to document this unimpressive plant.

It is tumbleweed, Amaranthus albus. According to Lawrence Newcomb, in the fall these plants lose their leaves and dry up, and then come loose from the ground and "are tumbled about by the wind." Hence the name.

I can't find anything interesting about tumbleweed, and it's very hard to do any on-line research because when you search on "tumbleweed," you get tons of restaurants listings, references to whimsically named streets in modern subdivisions — oh, and a tiny house company. Don't you just love those tiny houses? Aren't they cute? I wish I had one, even though I know I'd go insane from claustrophobia if I tried to live in it.

… I ran a search on the scientific name and learned that this plant is also known as prostrate pigweed.

This concludes our discussion of tumbleweed.