They are the silent stars of western movies. We have all seen in this type of feature film what looks like a ball of straw or hay rolling across a desert road, often breaking the tension in a duel between two cowboys. It has also become an icon to humorously indicate that a place is empty.
That desert ball is a plant that has several names in Spanish. One of them is steppicursor, although it is also known as tumbleweed, tumbleweed, or Russian thistle. In addition, it receives different names depending on the area: barrilla, albarrilla, salicor, salicornio, rodamundos, witch, captain, cachanilla, salsola, rodapaja…
The Royal Spanish Academy points out that in English it is called tumbleweed: “It is translated in bilingual dictionaries by tumbleweed or rolling bush. On the Internet names such as barrilla (albarrilla variant), salicor -voices present in the academic dictionary- or Russian thistle are given “.
The RAE states in another response: “We cannot confirm exactly which is the correct name in Spanish. In texts in Spanish there has always been a certain hesitation, such as, for example, the mere allusion to matojo… On other occasions, it was records the use of rolling brush on Internet pages”.
This plant grows until it adopts its characteristic rounded shape. It ends up drying up and dies, but it still keeps its seeds inside the flowers. The wind causes the steppecursor to separate from its roots and begin to roll, so that it spreads its seeds as it moves.
In some parts of the United States it is considered a danger to the ecosystem. The Texas Invasive Species Institute notes that Russian thistles contribute to the extinction of other plants and the spread of wildfires. They are easily flammable when dry and can accumulate in large quantities in open areas.
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