Skeletons of Russian thistle, better known as tumbleweed, pile up in a yard in Lancaster, California.<br> <a href="http://cookjenshel.com/"><br> cookjenshel.com</a>
Skeletons of Russian thistle, better known as tumbleweed, pile up in a yard in Lancaster, California.

cookjenshel.com

The Weed That Won the West

How did an invader from the Russian steppes become a symbol of the American West?

This story appears in the December 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine.
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