Original Purple Strain?

to the best of my knowledge.. many of the older kush strains had purple phenos.. also temperature influences the color. So I think you will have more than one answer on strains, as I am pretty sure many can naturally produce purple.

i believe the original purple is what ended up being grand daddy purp or a varient started in INDY 30+ years ago by old ass hippy not sure the details but it was kept pure for many years and is super heady and a great cross for any strain some say it was purple erkel crossed to big bud and i can remember that big bud was alot like NL it was a very big step in growing to have high quality in such high quantity some of these older strains are kept pure and given alias's to hide the actual grower who invented them and to hide the recipe as well so sometimes you just have to read between the lines always try to find the source thats my motto and it has worked out great

to the best of my knowledge its a phenotype in many land races and there are several "original purples" purified from several landrace sources.... there is no one original purple. just as there are many variants of kush derived from afgan and pakastani strains.

Originally Posted by dapenguin64

What is the original purple strain? I have been always wondering.

Many strains will turn purple if exposed to cold temperatures late in flowering because of production of anthocyanin, a purple pigment.

Subcontinental (indica) strains are especially known for this. Since Afghani indica strains are traditionally grown in desert climate late into the season when winter approaches, its probably true that the "first" purple drug strains are thousands of years old!

If you're talking about modern strains, domestic purple strains go back at least 40 years. A strain called "Purple Haze" (undoubtedly named after the Jimi Hendrix song, rather than the other way around) goes back to the 1970s. All of the modern purple strains that people get worked up about (Purple Urkle, Mendo purple, Grand-daddy purple, etc), can be traced back to strains grown in Nor Cal for at least 30 years.

Zacatecas purple is a strain from the Mexican state of the same name, originally grown in some high mountain region, known for its purple color (and potency). This strain may be an ancestor to some of the modern popular purple strains, and it was one of the rarer "name" imports into the USA in the 1960s.

now,whilist your purpled hands do reek and smoke.fufill your pleasure live a thousand years.i shall not find myself so apt to die,no place will please me more.....Shakespeare julus ceasar act3 scene 1

Originally Posted by Jogro

Many strains will turn purple if exposed to cold temperatures late in flowering because of production of anthocyanin, a purple pigment.

Subcontinental (indica) strains are especially known for this. Since Afghani indica strains are traditionally grown in desert climate late into the season when winter approaches, its probably true that the "first" purple drug strains are thousands of years old!

If you're talking about modern strains, domestic purple strains go back at least 40 years. A strain called "Purple Haze" (undoubtedly named after the Jimi Hendrix song, rather than the other way around) goes back to the 1970s. All of the modern purple strains that people get worked up about (Purple Urkle, Mendo purple, Grand-daddy purple, etc), can be traced back to strains grown in Nor Cal for at least 30 years.

Zacatecas purple is a strain from the Mexican state of the same name, originally grown in some high mountain region, known for its purple color (and potency). This strain may be an ancestor to some of the modern popular purple strains, and it was one of the rarer "name" imports into the USA in the 1960s.

hmmm i always figured it was more so from the hindu kush and pakistani region where weater changes occur faster and no temp related purpling could be an adaptation in some to prepare for the weather changes.


also agree with he jimi hendrix thing, if you read about jimi and listen to his songs well, he was always trying to come up with trendy phrases, not to mention at the time he came up with that song he was "london influenced" and hazy is a common/popular word to describe things over there, especially the weather. so he was probably smoking some purple in the haze, what do you call that? purple haze!)

Originally Posted by polyarcturus

also agree with he jimi hendrix thing, if you read about jimi and listen to his songs well, he was always trying to come up with trendy phrases, not to mention at the time he came up with that song he was "london influenced" and hazy is a common/popular word to describe things over there, especially the weather. so he was probably smoking some purple in the haze, what do you call that? purple haze!)

Hendrix, by all accounts, was a frequent smoker of cannabis.

On the etymology of his term "purple haze", that's really unclear, though *if* its a drug reference (and that's debatable, I think) its probably a reference to LSD, not to cannabis. As explanation of below, LSD was actually once a legal prescription drug; "Delysid" was the brand name. From wikipedia:

"I dream a lot and I put a lot of my dreams down as songs," Hendrix said in a 1969 interview with the New Musical Express, "I wrote one called 'First Around the Corner' and another called 'The Purple Haze', which was all about a dream I had that I was walking under the sea."[11] The term "purple haze" has been used to refer to LSD, due to the form sold by Sandoz, called Delysid, which came in purple capsules. The phrase itself appears in print as early as 1861, in Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, chapter 54: "There was the red sun, on the low level of the shore, in a purple haze, fast deepening into black..." Although, Hendrix himself stated that the song was partially in reference to a sci-fi story entitled "Night of Light" by Philip José Farmer. In it, "purple haze" is used to describe the disorienting effect of sunspot activity on the inhabitants of a planet called Dante's Joy.[12] Though Purple Haze is a form of cannabis no comment was made on whether the song has any affiliation.

The account that Hendrix lifted the term from the Sci-fi story referenced above is the one I think is most credible, especially considering he made the attribution himself. Apparently Hendrix was a bit of a sci-fi fan; he supposedly loved Star Trek!

Meanwhile the strain that most people know as "haze" wasn't bred until the 1970s, after Hendrix's death. So while its possible that Hendrix's song influenced the naming of the cannabis strain, I don't think the reverse is plausible.