Peculiar plants
■ From AG 28 November
The rolling thing
IN the Book of Isaiah there is the passage ‘…they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.’ The prophet was a good observer of nature, for then, as today, there are many kinds of ‘rolling things’, or tumbleweeds, in areas of steppe or desert.
The typical tumbleweed has stems that form a rough sphere, and its principle is that when its seeds are ripe the stems become light and hard, and the whole plant, becoming detached from the soil, is blown before the wind, shedding seeds as it goes.
The ‘rolling thing’ of Isaiah is probably , a member of the mustard family. This plant has the curious property of opening
