Originally Posted by ccodiane

Later arrival of trichs, as I mentioned in a previous thread, is to protect the seed from the degrading affects of light and heat. The plant is out to do one thing, not gather more light to grow big, which it would if it had enough energy left over. The plant wants to produce seed, period. Keep this in mind when thinking about the trich; seed production. This is why the highest concentration of trichs, by far, is on the seed bract, not the fan leaves.

Originally Posted by ccodiane

To protect the plant in the other ways mentioned, predation etc. I personally believe that the development of trichs in such profusion is almost entirely due to selective breeding. Marijuana has been cultivated for thousands of years and not always for the drug. Paper, food, and other uses are recognized throughout the ancient world. However, like all of humankinds crops, the selective breeding of the plants with the highest concentration of trichs, for hash say, over thousands of years, has no doubt changed the plant in order to suit our needs. Many of the crops we buy at our supermarkets today bear little or no resemblance to the original plant from which the selection process began. This must play a very important role in the evolution of the marijuana plant.