The Creation of a Seed

Marijuana Horticulture

by Jorge Cervantes

Cannabis is an anemophilous species; this is a fancy way of saying that it is wind-pollinated. Under natural, or wild conditions, male plants undergo dehiscence (shedding of pollen) and disperse vast quantities of pollen into the wind. The pollen travels on air currents and, by chance, lands on the stigma r style f a nearby, or not so nearby, pistillate individual. This is is the pollination event. Because pollen from many species floats in the air, and there is significant chance that pollen from other species will land on a fertile stigma of a waiting female plant, cannabis has evolved recognition systems that ensure only species specific pollen is able to germinate on the style and thus fertilize the female’s ovules. There is physical and biochemical recognition between the pollen grain and the stigmatic surface; together, these insure species identity.

If the biochemical signal is correct and the stigma recognizes the pollen grain as cannabis, the pollen grain is hydrated by a flow of water from the pistil, and it germinates. Just as a seed germinates and sends a taproot into the soil, the pollen grain germinates and sends a pollen tube into the stigma and burrow toward the ovule. Once the tube reaches the ovary, the genetic material carried within pollen is delivered to the ovule, where it is united with the genetic material from the pistillate plant. This fertilization event occurs and creates what is to become an embryo. This embryo grows within a seed coat, and when fully mature in four to five weeks, can be planted and will blossom into a new generation of life.