Americanized Russian Thistle Gardens for Red-Striped Tumbleweed Lovers

Summary: Americanized Russian thistle gardens favor Old Southwest-like tumbleweed, fight back with bristles and spines and flourish on bad sites and poor soils.

closeup of Russian thistle (Salsola kali) seedling: John D. Byrd, Mississippi State University, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images

Americanized Russian thistle gardens address ground reflection, nutrient imbalance and surface runoff along railways, in wastelands and on roadsides but assist attacks by beet curly top, beet mosaic and beet yellow viruses.

The herbaceous annual braves intense light, moisture, nutrient and temperature extremes and weed status with six relatives in the Chenopodiaceae family of goosefoot-related herbs and shrubs. Eurasian kochia claims weed status in British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan and Connecticut, Oregon and Washington and European lamb's-quarters in Manitoba with Russian pigweed and Quebec. Russian thistle draws it in Arkansas, California and Ohio and Russian saltlover in Alberta and Saskatchewan and in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico and Oregon.

Russian thistle, not Asian garden orache or North America's native glasswort and native greasewood, endures sanctions in Arizona and Hawaii and in Manitoba, Ontario and Saskatchewan.

Seedlings favor fleshy, linear, narrow, 0.39- to 1.97-inch- (10- to 50-millimeter-) long embryonic leaves, called cotyledons, not even 0.12 inches (3 millimeters) wide, atop purple-tinged stems.

Cotyledon-like, opposite-arranged, spine-tipped first leaf stages give way to mature alternate-arranged, 0.79- to 2.36-inch- (2- to 6-centimeter-) long, 0.039- to 0.79-inch- (1- to 2-millimeter-) wide leaves. Russian thistle, commonly named burning bush, prickly glasswort and Russian cactus, has awl-shaped, spine-tipped, 0.04- to 0.09-inch- (1- to 2.2-millimeter-) long upper, and threadlike lower, leaves. The mature, pyramid-shaped, time-reddened plant inclines its foliage from branched, breakable, 11.81- to 47.24-inch- (30- to 120-centimeter-) tall, red-striped, spiny stems atop 3.28-foot (1-meter) deep taproots.

Chinese and Russian saltlover, prickly Russian thistle and shrubby Russian thistle join Russian thistle in jumbling broken-off, roly-poly, seed-filled, wind-dispersed tumbleweeds throughout Americanized Russian thistle gardens.

Russian thistle, commonly named Russian tumbleweed, saltwort, tumbling Russian thistle and wind witch, keeps its imperfect, July- through October-blooming, regular, solitary flowers in leaflike, spine-tipped bracts.

Leaf-to-stem attachment angles called axils line up two 1.97- to 2.76-inch- (5- to 7-millimeter-) bracts for every green flower, each under 0.08 inches (2 millimeters) across. Russian thistle, like prickly and shrubby Russian thistles, maintains one pistil and five sepals on female flowers and five sepals and five stamens on male flowers. It needs to nurture, like native glasswort, prickly and shrubby Russian thistles and Russian saltlover, achene-like, coiled, dry, nonexplosive, single-seeded, 0.08-inch- (2-millimeter-) long fruits called utricles.

Americanized Russian thistle gardens obtain 25,000 cone-shaped, dull brown to gray seeds from each Russian thistle, annual named Salsola kali (salty [plant of] Kali [Saudi Arabia]).

Russian thistle, described by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), produces 0.08-inch- (2-millimeter-) long seeds that provide in-soil viabilities of under one year.

Sunlit soil temperatures of 28.4 to 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2 to 41 degrees Celsius ) at 0.39- to 3.15-inch (1- to 8-centimeter) depths quicken seed germination. Prolific seeds, quick germination and rapid growth result in just enough ground cover on objectionable sites and too much on beet, chard, quinoa and spinach croplands. Garden orache and Russian thistle spread curly top, mosaic and, with kochia, yellows to their beet relatives while glasswort, greasewood, lamb's-quarters and saltlover serve livestock toxins.

Americanized Russian thistle gardens turn down ground reflection and surface runoff, turn out Western looks with red-striped tumbleweed and turn up ground coverage away from croplands.

pyramidal, reddened look of mature Russian thistle (Salsola kali): USDA APHIS PPQ - Oxford, North Carolina, USDA APHIS PPQ, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

closeup of Russian thistle (Salsola kali) seedling: John D. Byrd, Mississippi State University, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1391516

pyramidal, reddened look of mature Russian thistle (Salsola kali): USDA APHIS PPQ - Oxford, North Carolina, USDA APHIS PPQ, Bugwood.org, CC BY 3.0, via Forestry Images @ http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1148072

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "1. Salsola kali." Species Plantarum, vol. I: 222. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358241

Modzelevich, Martha. "Salsola kali, Russian Thistle, Prickly Saltwort, Prickly Glasswort, Hebrew: מלחית אשלגנית, Arabic: شنان." Flowers in Israel.
Available @ http://www.flowersinisrael.com/Salsolakali_page.htm

"Salsola kali L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/7200069

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT Press, Botanical Research Institute of Texas.