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Russian Thistle

 

Some of you may have seen or heard the news recently about the tumbleweeds invading areas of California and Utah.  

Some national news services picked up the story. Apparently, strong winds blew the tumbleweeds across the landscape, piling them up in back yards, up against privacy fences and such, creating quite a nuisance.  

Although several species of plants may tumble across the landscape, tumbleweeds are usually Russian thistle (Salsola iberica).  It is an annual broadleaf plant native to Eurasia.  And unlike many introduced weeds of unknown origin, Russian thistle is well known to have been brought to the United States, more specifically South Dakota, as a contaminant in flax seed in 1873.  

Like many annuals, Russian thistle is a prolific seed producer.  Each plant may produce around 250,000 seeds. When the seeds are mature and the plant dies, the stem breaks off, and the plant then often proceeds to bounce across the countryside spreading seed as it goes.  

The seed viability of Russian thistle is high, but short-lived.  Maybe a year or so. The seedlings, however, are not very competitive with other plants, thus they really need a patch of disturbed bare ground to become established.

The seeds of Russian thistle are important food items for a wide variety of birds and small mammals.  Plus pronghorn and prairie dogs are known to utilize the foliage.

It might surprise you, but Russian thistle was an important food for livestock during the dirty thirties.  Cattle and sheep utilize young plants. And it is generally regarded as having fair to good palatability. It is also a good source of phosphorus and vitamin A, and when young, has a protein content that may be around 8%.  Once the plant begins to flower, however, it becomes coarse and spiny, so as you would expect, palatability and utilization drop precipitously.

Seeing Russian thistle bouncing across the landscape is a common sight in many parts of North Dakota.  And it will likely continue to be so. However, it seldom creates the nuisance that leads to national news stories.  But no doubt a few of us have to occasionally deal with this tumbling nuisance. Let us just hope it is not necessary to use it as a forage this summer.

Chuck Lura

Natural North Dakota is supported by NDSU Central Grasslands Research Extension Center and Dakota College at Bottineau, and by the members of Prairie Public. Thanks to Sunny 101.9 in Bottineau for their recording services.

 

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