Is genetic diversity really that important?

[Chamba]

I also have seen high THC plants covered with resin still attracting insect pests by the thousands.
-SamS

so there goes the much mentioned theory that resin/THC evolved to stop insects attacking the plant during the grow season!...but I think that resin/THC certainly helps to discourage many insect attacks....

my theory is that the resin/THC evolved more so to help protect the seed after the plant dies and falls to the ground from moisture, molds, insects and the effects of composting until next season (which is probably why the resin is concentrated around the seeds, not the leaves..and that the resin production increases approximately inline with the formation of seed ) ....more so than it prevents or discourages insect or animal attacks during the plant's life....

 

[hardhat22]

Lol,some of you folks obviously think too much.Good thing for the rest of us that you do.

I have a problem with conservation of landraces,or varieties.I'm not actually convinced there is such a thing.Is the Columbian Gold or Panama Red that I smoked in the late 70's and into the 80's genetically the same plants that are being sold by seedbanks now?

A few pages back in this thread is a picture of seeds from 1978.I'd love to have just one of those,but would it be the same as another collectors batch of the same variety from the same year??

My question is,since cannabis crosses so easily,and the pollen strays so far,isn't it possible that it has always,and will always be,changing and diversifying?Mexican farmers don't always kill off the males,and they don't always find all of the hermies.And they are not ALL so isolated from each other that their crops are safe from cross-pollination.

Sam the skunkman has made his point with me about not finding potency in wild species.But of the hundreds of wild species that have been sampled,how many thousands were not?Hats off to ya,by the way,Sam.

The prehistoric man found frozen in the Austrian alps in 1991 had a small leather pouch of pot hanging on his neck containing a nugget of herb and some seeds.My first thought when I saw the Nova documentary was "thats a small sack,must have been some excellent herb".It could have been that it was medicine.But if he was carrying medicine for a long journey,why only carry one kind?Why didn't he have a bagful of different types of medicines just in case??And why was cannabis the only medicine that he held close to his heart?
Peace

 

[ngakpa]

the pollen strays so far

does it? how sure are you - have you had a look at the figures provided by crop research?

weather depending, pollen can travel far - but typically pollen does not travel far at all, especially cannabis pollen...