All hail the tumbleweed, denizen of deserted steppe, itinerant ditherer of the dusty plains. It goes wherever the wind and the land dictate, often shedding seeds as it bumbles. ... Large plants can produce 100,000 tiny seeds and have thorns sharp enough to pop bike tires or pierce threadbare soles.

Are tumbleweeds prickly?

As tumbleweeds go, it is very large, often a metre or more in diameter, spiny, largely inedible to most livestock if unprocessed, and a fire hazard.

What are tumbleweeds made of?

Kali tragus is the so-called "Russian thistle". It is an annual plant that breaks off at the stem base when it dies, and forms a tumbleweed, dispersing its seeds as the wind rolls it along. It is said to have arrived in the United States in shipments of flax seeds to South Dakota, perhaps about 1870.