what are these tumbleweed things? they look like the top off some sort of native grass. they have about 8 "points" with small seeds on them. this lets them "roll" around. measure maybe 6-8 inches round. i've never seen them before but this fall they are all over the lot here in kc,ks. i've never seen them in MO before. sorry i don't have a pic.

You've never seen a tumbleweed????

They are a weed and that is the whole plant. They're actually called Kochia.



That's what they look like before they dry up and break loose. 6" is a little one. They get 18" or more in diameter. The rolling around is what scatters the seeds. If you cut them with a swather early before they get stickers on them they make excellent livestock feed. They're not hard to kill in the fields with cultivation or chemicals but they grow very fast and you generally can't get them out of the fencerows and such so they'll never go away.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by sostock: what are these tumbleweed things? they look like the top off some sort of native grass. they have about 8 "points" with small seeds on them. this lets them "roll" around. measure maybe 6-8 inches round. i've never seen them before but this fall they are all over the lot here in kc,ks. i've never seen them in MO before. sorry i don't have a pic.

these aren't "real" tumbleweeds but they do tumble. its like the seed head off some sort of grass. i wish i had a pic. i tried looking it up on some sites but couldn't find it.

We dodged a few of those on the way to your place John, can't say that I've ever seen them up this way.

Dan

Is it witchgrass?

http://www.lib.ksu.edu/wildflower/witchgrass.html

no that stuff is too "fine". its like a stalk of grass that is broken off at the top. it has 6 or 8 spikes coming off of the main stalk that go in all directions. the stalk part is just a little longer so it really can't "tumble" across the open. just kinda bounces about in big circles. they are pretty small and very light. kinda looks like a starburst or a porky-pine?

Ah, windmill grass. Yep, completely different stuff. If you don't live on the outskirts of town they must have popped up in a vacant lot somewhere. They're not too big of a problem, for the most part.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by sostock: blahhh! thanks Wolfhound i searched that site you linked to. windmill grass. http://www.lib.ksu.edu/wildflower/windmillgrass.html

yeah they aren't a problem. its just kinda weird when all you see is concrete and asphalt and then ya see some of these critters running around out in the lot. i'm right at where the kansas river and mo rivers join. i'm sure they are coming over/through the fence someplace.

i'm just glad they have a name instead of "those tumbleweed thingies"

I remember the first time I saw a tumbleweed. I was driving South of Raleigh, NC to a little town I'd never been to, but had heard of it as basically a little country backwater - Fuquay-Varina. Well, as soon as I got to the city limits, I'm sitting at a stop light and a tumbleweed rolls across the street. I died laughing - just the timing was perfect.

Of course, back then F-V wasn't much more than a bedroom community past the suburbs.

what? had a stop light? that's a city!

i saw my first missouri amradillo this summer. i'd seen them before out sw but they were usually flat.. funny little critters, like an opossum with a shell.