ngakpa said:Hey Thule - are those the Kullu Jungli I sent you or different ones?
ngakpa said:well it is definitely what people there would call jungli (wild) --- it grows around Chandrakani Pass and Naggar in Kullu... it's a big debate really as to how much the hand of man has been involved in creating such vars. and to what extent nature makes this kind of C. indica the way it is
great to see them going
Hillig suggested that these might actually be the living ancestors of all cannabis indica strains today and therefore not escaped cultivars. If I remember correctly he based this theory on the unique cannabinoid profiles of these strains, not so much the appearance. Thanks for the link by the way, I remember bumping into it in OG back in the days. Very fascinating.
I'm now under the impression that these jungli strains have grown there way before man even arrived. They offer different phenotypes that could very well have given rise to the different cultivars we see in the near by areas today. Some with wider leaves which seems to be the trend northwards and some with thinner leaves. If the wide leaf phenotypes are a result of hybridization from imported genetics one would think they'd eventually revert back to the thin leaf expression and in nature these things happen fast. Take an afghan indica to Scandinavia and after 5 years you might mistake it for a sativa.
You see where I'm getting? To me these traits seem the way nature intended. Surely there has been cross pollinations from cultivated strains, but these strains are genetically very close to the wild variants and any traits selected by man would probably become obsolete in a few generations.
What kind of jungli variants have you come across and do they mirror the local climates in your opinion? It would be nice to hear your take on the issue.