Today it is very windy. For those who live in this area, that might be an understatement. I was on my way to work this morning and driving along when I see something crossing the road. Sure enough, it was a HUGE tumbleweed...yes, my friends, a tumbleweed...this thing could have taken out my car... Okay, what?! I'm in northern Illinois...close to Chicago...this is an extremely populated area. There is no reason, nor any source as far as I can tell, for tumbleweed. I'm just saying it...scared the crap out of me.
Of course...as windy as it was, it could have been an entire bush...
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Tumbleweed
Posted by Aaron Arkkelin at 3:36 PM
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3 comments:
A tumbleweed aaron? it was probably a large bush...it was definitely windy enough...and i'm still sitting here at work waiting for the scary storms to come...(cry). I doubt it was a tumbleweed though because according to wikipedia (and i quote) "Salsola (also known as Tumbleweed, Saltwort 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.[1]" and further more "The genus Batis is also sometimes known as Saltwort, but is unrelated to salsola."....so there
it was a bush i'm sure
sonia....i actually put that description for tumbleweed in the other day...sorry...but i just pulled that out of my.........fingernail. so yeah, man though...thats crazzy as crazy!! it sounds like it was almost the experience of hitting a deer!!? but i really wouldnt know...cuz i have neither hit a tumbleweek or deer......
I realize that this is a year later, but I stumbled across your post because I recently had a similar experience in central Illinois (biking on a windy day, when a largish weed rolled across the road in front of me) and was looking to see if it was possibly, actually, tumbleweed.
So far, it looks like it could be - while wikipedia does say that Salsola is native to Africa, Asia, and Europe, it has become an invasive species in the U.S. Furthermore, according to the USDA, it is found in almost all 50 states, including Illinois.
(http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SATR12)
So it's at least possible that it was.
-matt
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