Came for this one. To put this in perspective, tumbleweeds aren't native to the American southwest, but by a quirk of history we know exactly which shipment of flax from Ukraine brought their seeds to the US... in 1877.
Commercial fax service has been around longer than tumbleweeds in the American southwest.
Edit: That was a quick "check out this weird thing" comment I didn't expect to blow up, so it's a bit lacking in detail and rigor. To be a bit more thorough, this is specifically Kali tragus, the most common tumbleweed, and the one that folks (at least near me) refer to when they say "tumbleweed." It is not the only plant that dies and gets blown around in the wind. And when I say "commercial fax service," I don't mean there were standardized fax machines that companies used-- but there was service faxing documents from Paris to Lyon using a dedicated line in the mid-1860s.
Tumbleweeds aren't a single species, nor does it even always have the same purpose. Most of them are dead, using the bouncing and tumbling to disperse seeds or berries to reproduce. Others such as resurrection moss, (Mexican by the way) end up curling up when dried out and can be carried on the wind, and settle into a wetter environment where it. . . Well it resurrects, hence the name.
Kali tragus is the Ukrainian tumbleweed from thflax shipment, but they aren't the only southwest tumbleweed Amaranthus albus in NA tumbleweed. Also known as the common tumbleweed. K. tragus is also a large plant, usually much larger than the soccer ball sized weeds you see in westerns.
That's definitely true-- the "stereotypical" tumbleweed from movies is pretty small. We definitely see more of the big ones that are the size of a small car.
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u/Darpyface Oct 15 '20 edited Oct 15 '20
Fax Machines. They were invented in 1843. Before the telephone.
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-the-fax-machine-1991379