Why does cannabis produce resin?

[llewop]

Just curious, but for all those who say this or that off the top of their head, can you provide references? Evidence for or against? Has anyone read any of the studies linked to in this thread?

VerdantGreen asked a legitimate question, but only a few actually provided any kind of reference as to why. Everybody else just states their own thoughts and ideas as to why.

Opinion/conjecture/supposition is all well and good for burning a fat one around the fireplace on a cold winter's night, but does nothing to further research. Which, I believe, is the main reason for the forum this thread is found in.

Please, do not misunderstand, I'm not trying to be a dick. But if we want a reasoned logical approach free from opinion/conjecture/supposition it is necessary to maintain critical thinking, and the best way is to cite references for what you say or take it to the Toker's Den. But not in a forum labeled "Cannabis Botany and Advanced Growing Science."

Peace

VerdantGreen question doesn't have a simple answer, I'll cite you a bunch of sources all saying something different about the role of trichomes.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14571756/The-Biotechnology-of-Cannabis-Sativa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichome

http://www.springerlink.com/content/c0524j36372h6406/

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...wn2JqfMUM1Ioqvw8w&sig2=afxP5xsgWRq504e7WCZcPQ


Just because something is published doesn't mean its a fact.

 

[VerdantGreen]

....

VerdantGreen asked a legitimate question, but only a few actually provided any kind of reference as to why. Everybody else just states their own thoughts and ideas as to why.

Opinion/conjecture/supposition is all well and good for burning a fat one around the fireplace on a cold winter's night, but does nothing to further research. Which, I believe, is the main reason for the forum this thread is found in.

Please, do not misunderstand, I'm not trying to be a dick. But if we want a reasoned logical approach free from opinion/conjecture/supposition it is necessary to maintain critical thinking, and the best way is to cite references for what you say or take it to the Toker's Den. But not in a forum labeled "Cannabis Botany and Advanced Growing Science."

Peace

hi m&g, as i was aware when i asked this question. there are very few cannabis specific references about resin (which i clearly defined in my first post). i do think it is a legitimate question about cannabis botany and i invited both thoughts and references when asking the question.
I agree we want to keep the standard high in this forum, but also i want it to be accessible and interesting to as wider range of contributors as possible, so i dont see the harm in a thread like this personally.

VG

 

[VerdantGreen]

are we talking about trichomes or THC though ?

resin is a bit vague as to the source of whats going on,,

......

hi lias, in the first post i said what i meant by resin

"not just THC, but the whole sticky contents of glandular trichomes"

 

[Easygrowing]

Im an totally noob in those world.But im pretty sure,it,s for it can collect the pollen of course..nothing at all with UV or those to do..everyother flowers-has a kind of nectar
and at the same reason..if it flowers also-who grows from seeds..it,s not all flowers-that does so..try to think-as others flower-canna it,s not "unormally" differents from those..
Yes-but just-we can get high..that can some others flower,s also do..

it,s true : ) the MJ plant-did not know,s people can be stoned..and that we can do-because we have something in our brains-there pretty much is the same-"structure" as MJ has...it,s long out-but it,s true..

Happy new year.

 

[messn'n'gommin']

VerdantGreen question doesn't have a simple answer, I'll cite you a bunch of sources all saying something different about the role of trichomes.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14571756/The-Biotechnology-of-Cannabis-Sativa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichome

http://www.springerlink.com/content/c0524j36372h6406/

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...wn2JqfMUM1Ioqvw8w&sig2=afxP5xsgWRq504e7WCZcPQ


Just because something is published doesn't mean its a fact.

Thank you! That is my point exactly! Referencing to support an opinion is the whole point of the forum. Without evidence to support a claim, it only amounts to one shout fest after another. Answering no question.

hi m&g, as i was aware when i asked this question. there are very few cannabis specific references about resin (which i clearly defined in my first post). i do think it is a legitimate question about cannabis botany and i invited both thoughts and references when asking the question.
I agree we want to keep the standard high in this forum, but also i want it to be accessible and interesting to as wider range of contributors as possible, so i dont see the harm in a thread like this personally.

VG

I bow to your your wisdom!

namaste

 

[mriko]

The trichomes could keep small insects from eating the plant, or help capture moisture. But these ideas all don't make sense considering the plant only produces the trichomes when flowering.

Not from eating the plant, but from eating the seeds.

anyway the insect pollination theory is the only one that makes sense to me. I like you last quote by the way. respect.

Doesn't make much sense actually. Pollinating insects would get stuck on the resin drops resulting in no pollination because of the messenger's death.
Anyway, cannabis does not need insects for its reproduction as it uses the most basic way, which is wind pollination.

I think I'm going to throw in my opinion and agree with Honkytonk on human selection. We know cannabis and hemp ( I'm going say they are different for this post) have been used by humans for thousands of years. If I am not mistaken, because I never really saw wild hemp, it is not very resinous, probaly because certain phenotypes were taken for fiber. Now on the other hand if over this same time period certain cultures took phenotypes of cannabis for their capabilities to get you high or produce hash, then it stands to reason, that over the years natural selection has favored these types and indeed has evolved from more hempy plants. I mean do we breed for fiber, or do we, or in past times, shamans, medicine men, or people looking to alter their concious, breed for resin. I think resin has actually proven to be more of a survival feature in the continuation of the species.

There are resinous wild strains, and less resinous ones. But this is after thousands of years of human influence. As I said above, if cannabis wasn't producing resin as it does today when human started playing with it (say, if only a fraction of mutated individuals would bear resin gland), the only reason why the plant produces resin is to select the best possible ally (symbiosis is very common in the vegetal world, be it plant/plant, Plant/mushroom, Plant/insect, plant/bird, plant/mammal, plant/human) to ensure the continuation of species and increase the possibilities to conquer more land, this ally being the human species.

Actually hemp is made from a completely different plant than the pot were smoking,

hmmm, not that much actually. Prohibition and all the propaganda going with it has made people believe that these are two different kind of plants, but no. In the Himalaya, there are still some places were the same plant is grown for food, fiber & resin. This multiple usage used to be more widespread, but the selection imposed by both prohibition & illegal markets requirements has made these strains or multiple uses to disappear.
Different uses, same plant.

I still think to attract pollinators.

Wind is the pollinator. Resin would rather attract animals for them to feed on seeds and help spread them more or less far away from the mother plant. Animals too like to get high...

because it has been selected so far away from hemp

I'd rather think that hemp too is the result of same kind of selection & breeding work than the varieties we speak of in this place. Again, take into consideration the multiple-uses strains. For the people who first started to grow & breed the plant, it was certainly with multiple uses in mind. For fibers, food & spiritual/medicinal uses and certainly the first breeders must have tried to get the best out of their genetics in the three kind of uses.

Or maybe the resin helps stick the seeds to animals walking through it carrying it further around.

hey, very good point here !

Irie !

 

[llewop]

hmmm, not that much actually. Prohibition and all the propaganda going with it has made people believe that these are two different kind of plants, but no. In the Himalaya, there are still some places were the same plant is grown for food, fiber & resin. This multiple usage used to be more widespread, but the selection imposed by both prohibition & illegal markets requirements has made these strains or multiple uses to disappear.
Different uses, same plant.

I was actually referring to ruderalis, but you are right, the majority of hemp is made from cannabis sativa

 

[VerdantGreen]

I bow to your your wisdom!

namaste

no superior wisdom here , just a different opinion. im sure many would agree with yours.

---

this paper is pretty good proof that the earliest angiosperms were animal pollinated (beetles apparently) - and that wind pollenation is a secondary adaptation.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/2406479

VG

 

[lost in a sea]

hi lias, in the first post i said what i meant by resin

"not just THC, but the whole sticky contents of glandular trichomes"

sorry i missed that,,

there could easily be compounds in trichomes we still dont know about that could have been the original cause of their development,,, then some compounds we like ended up getting selected for,,

maybe cannabis has been used for a 1000 things in the past and just happens to be getting us high thesedays,,

or maybe it was to deal with some environmental factors no longer around,, i dont know what exactly,, but im not a big fan of the priciple of universality,,,

 

[kmk420kali]

There is some (inconclusive) info here, on pg 40--
http://books.google.com/books?id=zj...age&q=plant resin for seed protection&f=false

Interesting topic-- I was always under the impression that it was to protect the seeds in some way...thus starving the plant for water the last few days before harvest, seemed to produce resin at a greater rate--
Either way, this link is to a whole book...may be useful--

 

[SuperConductor]

It's most likely a combination of the main ideas put forward in the thread, unlikely to be just one reason. I'd just like to throw in this bit of reading that concludes cannabis had the genes for high resin (or at least high cannabinoid content) before man started his selections. As an irrelavent side note it's also interesting to note that man selected away from THCV.

Small and Cronquist (1976) assumed that the sativa and indica taxa diverged primarily as a result of human selection for fiber and/or seed production on the one hand and for high THC production on the other. However, the present investigation does not support this hypothesis. The high frequency of BT in the feral biotype of C. indica suggests that this allele may have been present at high frequency in the C. indica gene pool prior to domestication. Human selection of plants carrying two copies of the BT allele appears only to be of appreciable significance in the domestication of the NLD biotype. Human selection may have resulted in an increase in the quantitative levels of cannabinoids produced by the WLD biotype, but the average amount of CBD + THC produced by the NLD biotype did not significantly differ from the hemp and feral biotypes of C. indica. In fact, the average amount of THC + CBD produced by the NLD accessions was not significantly greater than the average amount of these two cannabinoids produced by the hemp accessions of C. sativa. Small and Beckstead (1973b) also reported comparable levels of total cannabinoids in their "psychotomimetic" and "non-psychotomimetic" strains. Plants with enhanced levels of THCV were uncommon in most drug accessions, except those from southern Africa and an accession from Afghanistan. This suggests that humans may have selected against this trait in cultivated drug strains.

In contrast with the NLD biotype, the WLD biotype did not have a significantly higher frequency of BT than the hemp and feral biotypes of C. indica. This may be explained by the different products obtained from the two drug biotypes of C. indica. NLD strains are usually cultivated for the production of marijuana (pistillate inflorescences), and it is the product of a single plant that is utilized. WLD strains are traditionally cultivated for the production of hashish (detached glandular trichomes), which is the combined product of many plants. A marijuana plant with two CD alleles (chemotype III) would be ineffectual for its intended use, whereas hashish made from a population of chemotype I, II, and III individuals typically contains more THC than CBD and depending on the proportions of the different chemotypes is more or less psychoactive (Ek et al., 1972 ; Clarke, 1998 ). Thus, human selection is expected to favor chemotype I plants as seed sources for marijuana cultivation, whereas the chemotypes of individual plants cultivated for hashish production are usually unknown to the cultivator (Clarke and Watson, 2002 ).

The presence of allele BT in the C. sativa gene pool suggests that introgression from C. indica might have played a role in the evolution of C. sativa. Wind-blown pollen may have contributed to allele migration between the two gene pools (Cabezudo et al., 1997 ). Relatively high BT frequencies (range 0.38–0.55) were detected in seven hemp accessions from Turkey, Spain, Italy, former Yugoslavia, and southern Russia, which are assignable to the southern eco-geographical group of C. sativa (Davidyan, 1972 ). Additional allozyme markers and morphological traits typical of C. indica were also observed in the southern group of C. sativa (Hillig, 2004 , in press). Cannabis indica may have been introduced into Asia Minor for the purpose of hashish production and hybridized with C. sativa. Davidian (1972) cited evidence that Cannabis was introduced into Europe by both a northern and a southern route. Introgressed stock may have spread into new areas through trade or human migration (Heiser, 1973 ).

The patterns of cannabinoid variation provide evidence of progenitor-derivative relationships. The low frequency of BT and the low levels of propyl cannabinoids in accessions assigned to C. ruderalis suggest that this putative taxon could be the progenitor of C. sativa, but not of C. indica. The feral biotype of C. sativa may be comprised of "escaped" populations of cultivated C. sativa that have merged with naturalized populations of C. ruderalis (Vavilov, 1926 ). The wide range of cannabinoid variation within feral accessions of C. indica suggests that this biotype could be the progenitor of the cultivated biotypes of C. indica. The high incidence of plants in this taxon with enhanced levels of propyl cannabinoids suggests that it is not the progenitor of C. sativa, in which plants with enhanced levels of propyl cannabinoids are much less common. It is unlikely that the feral biotype of C. indica represents an escape of NLD strains from cultivation because the NLD biotype is lacking in cannabinoid variation. The high frequency of BT in the hemp biotype of C. indica suggests the possibility that one or both drug biotypes could have been secondarily derived from this taxon's gene pool. More feral and cultivated populations of C. indica and C. sativa will have to be studied to further resolve these issues.

This study of cannabinoid variation supports a two-species concept for Cannabis. A taxonomic revision that applies valid scientific names to the biotypes of C. indica recognized herein is supported by the chemotaxonomic data.

From A chemotaxonomic analysis of cannabinoid variation in Cannabis (Cannabaceae)
Karl W. Hillig and Paul G. Mahlberg
http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/91/6/966

NLD = narrow leaf dominant
WLD = wide leaf dominant
C. Indica = drug strains (from India)
C. Sativa = useful cannabis ie. hemp etc

 

[IWanaGetHiSoHi]

It's a raincoat ... Without a water resistant barrier seeds (technically the fruit and actually a nut due to its akene) would rot before fully forming.

 

[chappie]

I can only add that this summer as I had some rather resinous plants in the greenhouse MANY little mites etc were trapped in the glands. I can't really say I took much effort to remove them; I have to just accept it as extra protein as I vaporize their grim mummified corpses.

 

[llewop]

I can only add that this summer as I had some rather resinous plants in the greenhouse MANY little mites etc were trapped in the glands. I can't really say I took much effort to remove them; I have to just accept it as extra protein as I vaporize their grim mummified corpses.

gnarly

 

[hazemaker]

perhaps you do not see it on males as prevalent is because males can die 6weeks earlier and pose no change in seeds surviability. The seed pod has by far the richest density of trichomes and thc. Thc is clearly a sunscreen spf 8, perhaps created from Earth Air and light. We find that high uvb climates produce resin generating progeny and an active increase in thc.

To attract insects? This seems counterintuitive, repel and minimize insects perhaps.

 

[redneck shogun]

Until it is legal to study cannabis and it's DNA I believe all we can really do is speculate and compare this plant to the evolution of other plants. After all we haven't even figured out our own evolution fully yet.

 

[VerdantGreen]

perhaps you do not see it on males as prevalent is because males can die 6weeks earlier and pose no change in seeds surviability. The seed pod has by far the richest density of trichomes and thc. Thc is clearly a sunscreen spf 8, perhaps created from Earth Air and light. We find that high uvb climates produce resin generating progeny and an active increase in thc.

hi hazemaker,

cannabis seeds have a tough opaque coating so i fail to see the need for the resin to protect the seeds. if DNA needed to be preserved we would see resin on male pollen sacs yet this is quite a rare trait afaik.

To attract insects? This seems counterintuitive, repel and minimize insects perhaps.

the idea that it is there to attract insects would be a throwback to the ancestors of cannabis which would have been insect pollinated. flies particularly are attracted to cannabis flowers from my observation.
its just a hypothesis. it seems there is no proven 'right' answer to this question just yet...

 

[mriko]

this paper is pretty good proof that the earliest angiosperms were animal pollinated (beetles apparently) - and that wind pollenation is a secondary adaptation.

I wouldn't call it a "pretty good proof" actually, and not much usable for cannabis which, correct me if i'm wrong, didn't evolve in a tropical setting.
The abstract at the bottom of the page, fits cannabis quite well actually.

maybe cannabis has been used for a 1000 things in the past and just happens to be getting us high thesedays

hmm, psychotropic & therapeutic properties of cannabis have been used since a least a few thousands years

there could easily be compounds in trichomes we still dont know about that could have been the original cause of their development,,, then some compounds we like ended up getting selected for,,

I'm not sure it would have to do with which compound is there or not, look at industrial hemp grown for fibers or seeds, it's quite resinous as well but smoke like shit.
Maybe one has to consider the resin separatly from cannabinoids & other psychoactive compounds ?

Lots of resin doesn't necessarily means lots of potency, and little to no resin doesn't necessarily means low or no potency either.

Irie !

 

[bombadil.360]

cannabis produces resin to get us high !!!

word.

enough said.

peace

 

[bombadil.360]

cannabis produces resin to get us high !!!

word.

enough said.

I
Lots of resin doesn't necessarily means lots of potency, and little to no resin doesn't necessarily means low or no potency either.

this is true too though... but resin just makes it very appealing to us... it could be one of the plant's methods to attract us so we can commune with all and so we can keep it alive and thriving around us.


i also wonder if the plants that are resinous and not that potent, are just the "left-overs" from populations that have been bred for a long time for psychoactive-medical uses.

who knows...