What he said.
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the real seed company is selling the same Kalamata Red that I picked up from the landrace team, cementing for me at least the fact that this is the true Kalamata. Iāll be growing a couple of these next summer I think.
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Where does it come from? Looks wicked.
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Kalamata region is in Greece. Itās famous for its olives
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Thereās a lot of speculation as to where it came from. Some people believe it is a mix of Southeast Asian, African, and Middle Eastern genetics. Personally I think this is one of the trophies of war that Alexander the Great brought back from Iran, known as Persia at the time. That would explain why phylos is showing no relatives. There is an area north of Tehran called the Elbruz mts, and on the wet Northern slope above the shores of the Caspian, thereās a legendary sativa landrace known as one Puff. A sativa growing at 37 degrees north latitude with long flowering characteristics. The King of Persia at the time ( king Darius the third)was known to have marijuana Gardens with private cultivators growing weed specifically for him and his ilk. These particular varieties were not available to the lower class. I have always thought that the ultimate trophy of War Two thousand years ago would be your enemies head stash. Taking King Darius III favorite plants. . The ultimate slap in the face. I believe some Iranian( persian) genetics were brought back to Greece with Alexander and his soldiers, and found themselves right at home in the Mediterranean climate, although itās certainly feasible that Indian genetics and any other Middle Eastern varieties could have been mixed in with it at the time. The African genetics at the time would have been Sinai and beldia from the northern portion of the continent, and anything along the Red Sea Corridor and down the eastern coast of Africa could have been included. But if these varieties were mixed in, you would think phylos would show that, which is why I have my theory about Persian genetics, which are relatively unmapped. 150 to 100 years ago it could have seen some pollen from hash plants , which were growing everywhere in Greece, and eventually found their way into the mix, explaining the large trichome count. Some people believe this happened quite late in history, while I believe it must have happened long ago when Greece occupied modern day Lebanon, Israel and Syria among other places.
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@Upstate Im not shure if Phylos is able to always verify a Changed Landrace , that once came from somewhere else . Look, if thats the case, phylos would probabl show every Strain far related to Himalayan, wich is the alleged Origin of all Cannabis. But phylos shows only CLOSE relatives, so it has to cut of Listing Relations at some Point. If we now asume Greek is infact mix of SEAsian, Afican, and middle Eastern, and on top adapted for Decades to Greece, it might not show. Since its to small Relation to show
I sense a touch of SEAsian in this Greek you showed.
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Yes youāre right. More distant relations are not shown. Itās very possible there is Southeast Asian genetics in Kalamata. So far the closest I can place Greek culture and trade is in India, where peppercorns were harvested to be shipped to Greece. I could have sworn Greece was involved with the Spice Islands trade, and they are located north of Indonesia. But so far I canāt find any evidence of this. The Phoenicians were pretty secretive about locations of some of their most highly sought-after trade items, so itās possible the Phoenicians traded with the Spice Islands, and then with Greece, which could explain South East Asian genetics. Or the Southeast Asian genetics you are referring to originally came out of tropical India to begin with. Or finally, perhaps the same austronesian people that traded with South Africa from Madagascar traded with the Greeks along the east coast of Africa. It could take a while before we know for sure, but it sure is fun to speculate!
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Damn this shit is interesting. The knowledge around here is so deep. Iām also inspired and motivated by the commitment to preservation which so many here on OG have.
Good stuff! 
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this is amazing info for sure -
- so youāre saying the Phoenicians were the first cannabis seed traders,
beyond region or country borders anyway ; correct ?
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Did they ship to US? What about freebies? 
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Nepenthes and Cannabis in Ancient Greece
Cannabis start from page 7
The only thing ancient greeks didnt have was rockānroll, all the rest was there, big ass link for this pdf:
https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/29208268/arata.pdf?1349786352=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DNepenthes_and_cannabis_in_ancient_Greece.pdf&Expires=1602514171&Signature=WmxgoFAYsIe27lORp6ajAs3IS6~xaLmA7BjTNvTDJQqWEdjWDo46-dx5oDxTwBgWX0jMR8CVNeF0SHF4jgT1IpG-6xEW6V2iYlxl8jRrvcijXb2hSqnKREZ2nmumb0SlwC3E0RaIQUQiUJ~ec7FANbhJWEzAtldw3-DyM3rXel76Na6ArtdI4CeJIfJOjGALoA9UROJN7Uza2yyQsiV1ENGh1cREJnzxM1s-Z6EzgPwLueEItVaVD2XLGcldqS8Jv5ye0wPNjvu7cd6McMYYDnFKXaCT3FQnIW1sG2HNdqvzxvqmZBYA6-1e9M1RnTbc6aCF-Uus4RK~Cjc3RwqMyQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
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perhaps a percentage of the tree that differs would be a better comparison strain to strain rather than identifying only close relatives.
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Its not usless to use Phylos to check. I was astonished to infact found some close Relatives of Columbian appeard to be Thai, (and vice Versa? i cant recall).
If its vice versa, it could just be similarities shown as āclose Relatedā, eg. similar Canabinoidspectrum, since Thai was allegedly not DERIVERING from Columbian. I dont know what Phylos are showing.
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I donāt know if phoenicians were the first Traders or not , but they were some of the first that would have traded long distance by ship, which moves items much further and much faster than on foot or animal. On foot a landrace might travel fifty or a hundred miles, or even more of course, while by ship, that same landrace can cross oceans and move from continent to continent in the same timeframe. The ancient Egyptians would probably have traded cannabis seeds for other items, (cocaine and tobacco among them, both from the new world, both found in Egyptian mummies )bringing cannabis to South America,(where exhumed 2,000 year old mummies have tested positive for hashish, which is from the old world)) and the Polynesians were expert seafarers too, possibly bringing cannabis to the new world from the opposite direction. I would bet that trading cannabis seeds or product is as old as trade itself.
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Prior to Prohibition in 1936, U.S. pharmaceutical companies had been importing seed from Borneo, (probably a close relative of Thai) in to Columbia for export to the US. 1920ās) did this Southeast Asian landrace mix with the local weed already in Columbia in the next 30 or 40 years, producing what was known as Colombian gold? If it was a hybrid of two landraceās, that would explain the extra potency it held during the hippie era, and why that potency would not be as prevalent 50 years later.
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Weed and History. My two favorite subjects.
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You really just blew my mind with that last bit. I really wish we could go back in time and experience these forever lost strains. That makes perfect sense that a lot of the time period between the 1700s and early 1800s would still have some introduction of non-native cannabis because of the slave trade, colonialism, and the birth of global trade via sea routes. I guess I just never put two and two together with an Asian/Latin American hybrid before cannabis was even on the cultural radar.
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Its speculation of course, but pot growers are the same everywhere. If you see that your neighborās plants are twice the size of yours, and yield three times as much, you want to grow what your.neighbor is growing. Our government was making hybrids in labs 50 years ago, so why not 50 years before that? Local Colombians grew the plants for the pharmaceutical companies, and began a growing tradition that was passed down to their children. When United States prohibition occurred, the pharmaceutical companies walked away from their weed plantations. But Iām willing to bet the locals didnāt LOL! What if all these older cultivars that seemingly disappeared just need to be made again? You can go down the list of the best of the best, and perhaps they were all hybrids . Was Durban Poison a hybrid of a local South African mixed with who-knows-what indica? Colombian gold could have been a mix of different Colombian landraceās or as has been suggested, perhaps some Asian influence. Was Acapulco Gold a mix of a Mexican landrace and Colombian import from the 60s and 70s ? The potent hybrid smoked in the 60s and the 70s would lose potency generation after generation is it became inbred, eventually becoming like all the other local landraceās in potency. Iāve started viewing landraces as constantly evolving, as new genetics are introduced and absorbed. Itās Just Happening too fast for landraceās to absorb right now. They canāt remain the same landrace and absorb the new genetic material at the rate itās being introduced. Natural selection will always steer genetic mutations toward what works best in a given area for survival, so as long as new material dribbles in, the environment and natural selection will keep the landrace generally the same. But with mankind intentionally spreading pollen all over the place, it will take a long time for landraces to recover from that, and we are losing our chance to make those killer hybrids again.
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I may have to grab a Kalamata!
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Brothers of Eternal Love also reputedly brought thai genetics into Colombia.
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