Curently I have 4 small Manipuri seedlings growing, they already look so wild compared to their others NLD neighboors in the box.
hi there
this may be pedantic of me, but as I'm sure you know, the Manipuri aren't in any way wild plants
they are ganja cultivars, and pretty heavily selected ones by the standards of traditional heirloom plants
in this case, there is a strongly established practice in the Imphal region of only growing from seeds that are from particularly good plants/batches of ganja
in the case of the batch of seeds I brought back, the farmer was emphatic that they had been kept specifically from a very good plant, and she was visibly reluctant to part with the particular bag of seeds I took, emphasizing that it was from a standout plant
this is born out by the reports of consistently high potency from growers who have cultivated this strain outdooors/in greenhouses in Spain and the tropics
of course, you only have to look at the calyx-to-leaf ratio of the Manipuri plants to know that they havebn't been subjected to the kind of intensive selection Western hybrids have been through
but they are very much cultivars - specifically ganja cultivars - and my guess is that they are pretty consistently in the upper double-digit THC range, which you only get with many generations of fairly intensive selection
even Himalayan strains are far from being wild
that even goes for 'jungli', which is simply feral (i.e., escaped) cultivated Himalayan cannabis
just want to emphasise this, as time and again I see the adjective 'wild' getting used to describe these plants
as Vavilov pointed out, it is highly doubtful pure wild cannabis exists anywhere in the world these days - feral, escaped cannabis, yes - but not pure wild cannabis
Regarding there not likely being any truly wild cannabis left in the world, that's really sad. It also means that mankind has altered every last square inch of the original cannabis habitat at some point in time, which doesn't seem unlikely considering the lack of habitat preservation going on in regions where cannabis is suspected to originate. Makes you wonder if the same story is true for corn, squash, Cacao aka tree that chocolate comes from (Theobroma cacao), cucumbers, watermelons....these wildtypes hold incredible diversity that can save cultivated plants from future extinction.
When you have landraces cannabis populations, they are relatively less genetically diverse compared to true wild types, but relative to modern dutch genetics or california's OG everything, landraces are a genetic goldmine!
Thank God many wild tomato populations and their relatives are found high in the mountains of South America. The terrain is very difficult to access, destroy, or use, so much of it is still pristine. I fear the same can't be said about other very important crops such as corn or squash which seem to grow in fertile alluvial/riparian zones.
This just goes to show how important it is for us as a community to preserve whatever is left. Habitat destruction is the quickest way to kill off a plant population, and to top that off, Nepal's political situation is likely causing the extinction of unique cannabis genotypes.
Regarding there not likely being any truly wild cannabis left in the world, that's really sad. It also means that mankind has altered every last square inch of the original cannabis habitat at some point in time, which doesn't seem unlikely considering the lack of habitat preservation going on in regions where cannabis is suspected to originate. Makes you wonder if the same story is true for corn, squash, Cacao aka the tree that chocolate comes from (Theobroma cacao), cucumbers, watermelons....these wildtypes hold incredible diversity that can save cultivated plants from future extinction.
When you have landrace cannabis populations, they are relatively less genetically diverse compared to true wild types, but relative to modern dutch genetics or california's OG everything, landraces are a genetic goldmine!
Thank God many wild tomato populations and their relatives are found high in the mountains of South America. The terrain is very difficult to access, destroy, or use, so much of it is still pristine. I fear the same can't be said about other very important crops such as corn or squash which seem to grow in fertile alluvial/riparian zones.
This just goes to show how important it is for us as a community to preserve whatever is left. Habitat destruction is the quickest way to kill off a plant population, and to top that off, Nepal's political situation is likely causing the extinction of unique cannabis genotypes.