Cannabis Plant Varieties

Cannabis plant diversity The cannabis plant has been growing on Earth since at least the last ice age, around 12,000 years ago. Due to travel, cultivation, selective breeding, trade and global seafaring, numerous varieties of the cannabis plant grow on all continents; cannabis finally arrived in South America in the 15th century (Merlin and Clarke 2013:128). It is one of the most widely disseminated cultivated plants in the world (Schultes et al. 1975:22). Cannabis grown in colder, northern climes at low altitudes, where ultra-violet light intensity is low, generally produces high-quality fibre but little of the psychoactive resin, which is at highest concentrations in the upper leaves surrounding the buds of the mature female plant. Although the naturally produced resin content of different varieties of the plant varies considerably, one of the main factors governing resin production is ultraviolet light, which is produced by the plant primarily to protect the buds and repel predatory insects. During the 1980s I spent most summers trekking in the Himalayas. I trekked through nearly all areas of the western Indian Himalayas (Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal) and several regions of Nepal, travelled through all of Eastern Tibet (east of Lhasa), and visited the mountainous region of southern Yunnan Province in China. I once calculated that I may have trekked around 2,000 kilometres in these mountainous regions. These journeys provided a magnificent opportunity to observe at close quarters native cannabis plants in a relatively wide geographical area. If you travel through just one region of the…

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Source : seedman
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