Tumbleweed plant causes hairy panic in Australian rural city

Residents of Wangaratta in the Australian state of Victoria are grappling with tumbleweed plant, a fast-growing grass actually found in all states of the Land Down Under. Summer has caused the fast proliferation of the front and backyard menace which has caused affected residents to react in a “hairy panic.”

The panic reaction comes from the rapid growth of the dead grass, also known as Panicum effusum, which reproduces fast due to seeds inside the dead weed. While homeowners deal with the growth by cutting the tumbleweed regularly until the hot season ends – or hiring someone to cut it – the risk comes for sheep and hog raisers because if the animal eats the tumbleweed in large quantities, it could develop “yellow big-head” and die, reports BBC.

If western nations struggling with wintry conditions have snow to deal with to get their cars out of their garages, in the southern hemisphere, it is the tumbleweed they grapple with. Because the plant grows fast and even reaches the roofs of homes, finding one’s vehicle amid the growth is the challenge of Wangaratta residents.

Jason Pera, one of the 17,000 residents of the rural Australian city, tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “Walked out the front door this morning to find a good six-metre [19-foot] spread of tumbleweed across the front of the house – again.”

It is an annual challenge for Wangaratta residents, but this 2016, because of the very hot summer caused by El Nino, the extremely dry conditions caused the faster growth of the tumbleweed. Besides the El Nino, Climate Council, an independent organisation in Australia, blames the extreme heat on climate change for “driving an increase in the intensity and frequency of hot days and heatwaves in Australia, in turn increasing the severity of droughts.”

Summer often dries and even kills plants due to lack of water. But for the tumbleweed, summer is a season to grow and spread fast because if the seed inside the dead grass – one of nature’s irony to the highest order.