Weather: We haven’t had any real rain since 17 October. When I dug into the ground on Thursday, the soil was damp. When I went back the next day, the area I had exposed was hard and dry, although moisture still existed if I dug in a new place. When I went to swept Russian thistle seeds, the surface was dry and turning to dust.
Friday morning’s low of 17 ended any attempts by plants to pretend the afternoon temperatures boded well. The night sky was clear with more stars than usual visible. Saturday and Sunday mornings, the air temperature fell to 13 degrees F. The weather bureau said some “upper level trough” that was protecting us had shifted east, and now something worse is headed our way.
Last useful rain: 10/17. Week’s low: 13 degrees F. Week’s high: 70 degrees F in the shade. Winds were up to 37 mph in Los Alamos and Santa Fé on Wednesday.
What’s still green: Needles on pines, piñon, junipers, yews, arborvitae; leaves on cliff rose, Japanese honeysuckle, chives, yuccas of all types, red hot pokers, vinca, hollyhocks, snapdragons, bouncing Bess, pink evening primroses, blue flax, coral bells, Saint John’s wort, Queen Anne’s lace, tansy, lance-leaf coreopsis, white yarrow; blades on pampas and cheat grasses, centers of needle grasses
What’s still gray or gray-green: Leaves on fern bushes, four-winged saltbushes, chamisa, snow-in-summer, catmint
What’s turning purple: Leaves on coral beardtongues
What leaves are dying but haven’t dropped: Apples, apricots, roses, pyracantha, cottonwoods, weeping willows, Russian olives, privet, Siberian elms, and many of the perennials
Animal sightings: Western chickadees
Tasks: I decided to stop excavating the dead cholla cactus until I filled more of the opening under the south fence. Last week I had learned many barren spots in my back yard were actually burial grounds for stucco. This week, when I begin looking for bare areas with scattered stones, I discovered someone had spread his leftover sand into a layer at least 3" thick over a wide area. This was where I found rabbit holes.
Weekly update: No one will ever win the war against Russian thistles. They are like the sea waters threatening the Dutch or the virus for the common cold. They simply are part of our ecosphere.
That does not mean one should stop trying. After all, most of us take some precautions against catching colds. And, like a cold, it probably doesn’t matter which strategy one uses — scraping, mowing, cutting, pulling, or burning — so long as one uses it effectively.
Being effective means employing that maxim of war attributed to Sun Tzu: know thy enemy.
Russia thistles emerge as two blades that resemble grass. They soon radiate into a head. At this time, the roots are straight. One can’t burn them but one can mow or pull them safely.
These grow into bushy plants with many branches with long, thin leaves. The stems and branches are flexible and soft to the touch. It may be too late to pull them, as their roots may have taken turns so that they leave a large furrow when they are removed. Besides, Russian thistles are annuals. Their roots will die in winter.
You can cut them and roll them into trash bags. Ranchers may even let their livestock eat them. The problem is they will produce new branches. If they are kept mowed, the branches spread along the ground. It is a temporary measure that is useful because it limits the number of seeds that will be produced.
Thistles begin to bloom in late summer. The tiny yellow flowers form in the joints where leaves attach to stems. The tips of the leaves begin to become more pointed. These tips make it more difficult, though not impossible, to handle the plants.
The petals fall leaving the white holders or calyces.
The seeds form below, as the plant begins to die. It has served its purpose. First the green disappears, leaving a red stem, then the plants turns purple. The tips at the ends the leaves become sharper to protect the ovaries. Plants become dangerous to handle.
The plants dry to the familiar tan, seen in the top photograph. While the carcasses now will burn, they contain so many chemicals the smoke is noxious. These chemicals are the reason plants become difficult to handle. Any scratch from a leaf tip can cause an allergic reaction. My hands itch.
Now is when they become the most visible, especially when the stems break above the ground and carcasses blow across roads. They are so big, and often so numerous, individuals try mechanical means to remove them.
Plants continue to dry and, when they are touched, fall apart. This past week, when I was removing them, I noticed the carcasses rarely held any seeds. The plants that men are removing no longer are the source for next year’s crop.
Dried leaves and petals litter the ground, with the heavier seeds under them. Individual parts may be harmless, but the mass is prickly. This is why I have been wearing gloves to sweep the debris into a dust pan.
I know I will never get them all, and hate to remove the harmless parts that protect the ground against the winds. However, they now are the enemy.
Notes on photographs: All are Russian thistles (Salsola tragus).
1. Carcass blowing in the wind in my neighbor’s yard, 5 February 2012.
2. Seedlings in a field down the road, 3 May 2014.
3. Young bush along the shoulder, 27 August 2011.
4. Yellow flower along the shoulder, 7 August 2011.
5. White calyces on the prairie, 20 October 2011.
6. Thistles turning purple on the prairie, 20 October 2011.
7. Thistles beginning to burn. At this point the heat is drying the plants and releasing the chemicals into the yellow-gray smoke. This is one plant collected from my neighbor’s shoulder, 16 December 2010.
8. Empty stem in my yard photographed on a piece of cardboard, 8 November 2022.
9. Debris in the same place in my yard, 8 November 2022.
End notes: I discussed Russian thistles on my Nature Abhors a Garden website on 16 March 2008 and 19 December 2010. The first dealt with the plant and its history. The second was devoted to problems burning carcasses.
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