 leaves are bizarre | |
mj leaves are the bizarrest.
genetically they go from a variety called 'ducksfoot' with 3 fingers, to 11 and 13 fingered jungle bunnies.
number of leaf fingers is genetically given by the environment they are from,
ducksfoot strikes me as a plant that came from amongst rocks on a hill, a scrubby weed. gets full sun so does not need big large leaves.
jungle bunnies however, that have to grow big and quick to beat competition, reach the light and shade out others. [
so the idea that a bigger leaf is happier is true in a sense; happy to beat others, happy to be alive. lol]
as far as healthier, that depends on the grow. outside a multifingered sativa is healthy, but inside they can shade themselves to death.
Leaf fingers seem to be odd in number, 1,3,5,7,9,11,13 and beyond, this is the sequence they follow when growing. first set 1, 2nd 3, 5, 7 and so on till they reach the genetically programmed number.the genotype
This is the number of fingers they have till flowering, when leaves form on the buds. these follow a reverse sequence, descending in number as the flower develops, till the last leaves produced are one finger.
This genetic program is as Illegal Seed pointed out, open to environmental influence such as light strength, feeding, reveg, chemical induced mutation, etc
This is what creates the phenotype, what the plant looks like, so that 2 plants of the same genotype, grown differently,
may have a different leaf structure and growth habit; make them appear different plants. You cannot rely on leaves to identify a plant.
I currently have some plants with totally different phenotypes, yet when flowered it was obvious that they were genetically linked. lol nigel
pics 1 and 2 are of long lost cousins, thought to be different plants due to leafs, but family reunited on flowering.
pics 3 and 4, 2 clones off the same plant, but came out different phenotypes, and leaves, due to pot size and quality of care.
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"There are no problems; there are only solutions." Bill Mollinson |