The Trouble with Tumbles (school assignment)
The Trouble with Tumbles (school assignment)

Tumbleweeds are an invasive species.  

I know, right?

Tumbleweeds are actually native to Russia. They probably came to the US in a shipment of wheat seeds, which arrived in the 1800s in South Dakota.  The United States Department of Agriculture attempted to contain it, but there was far too much tumble and not enough people to stop it.

Tumbleweeds are very thorny, sticky yet bouncy, and are a massive pain to clear. After just two years, they can cover an entire town, and the town can be covered in what amounts to sticky, thorny snow.

Tumbleweeds also sap up ground resources, in their first year hurting crop yields by 20%. They can even spread fires, when they are blown past firebreaks. The USDA is aggressively trying to banish them, but it is a sisyphean task

Sources:
Grey, C. G. P. (2020, March 1). The trouble with tumbleweed - youtube. The trouble with tumbleweed. Retrieved February 10, 2022, from http://youtu.be/hsWr_JWTZss
Los Angeles County Department of ... - file.lacounty.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/acwm/215984_WADTProgram.pdf