Origins and Backstory: These definitely have one of the coolest stories behind them of any of the seeds that I own. I received these seeds personally after sharing some coffee with Yantra Seeds in Byron Bay, Australia. I was visiting a few weeks for a family wedding, and heard through the grapevine about a local seed purveyor. After getting vetted over coffee, I was brought to the person’s house to see living ABC plants while being informed of the history of this varietal. Supposedly there are several sub-strains of ABC, and they each have a different name. I was pretty stoned at the time, but I recall some names like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves—the weeds were called something like Bimby, Dingy, Frimpy, and Swirl or something funny and Aussie like that. In any case, they each have some differences but are discernable by their signature leaf and growth patterns.*
*If the reader is totally unfamiliar with ABC, I’d strongly recommend they do some research—it is a mutated plant, supposedly indigenous (possibly just adapted) to Australian climate, and has extremely unique growth patterns that do not appear to be present in cannabis outside of this unique population. @CSI_Humboldt has largely brought awareness of the cultivar into the mainstream, and sells hybrids of this plant. I believe he is working on refining the hybrids to F2 generations and beyond.
These strains are not known among locals for their potency, but they grow wild in the “bush” (Aussie for wilderness) along the border of Queensland and New South Wales. Potency is reportedly markedly increased by being grown indoors under HID lights as opposed to being left to the elements. The plants were bred with Malawi landrace plants in an effort to increase potency, but obviously I am not sure how fruitful the effort has been.
The really cool part of the story is that supposedly these plants were grown and bred by Ned Kelly’s direct descendants. Ned Kelly is an infamous Australian criminal, and if the reader is uninformed I would strongly suggest they follow up by reading his wikipedia at a minimum—an almost unbelievable character! Ned Kelly was eventually hanged by the law, but left behind a pregnant girlfriend. Supposedly his “bastard” son kept up the nomadic/criminal lifestyle in the Aussie bush, and grew this weed wild in the bush for supplemented income. That’s allegedly where the name of Bastard weed comes from, that it’s Ned Kelly’s bastard and in turn his descendants responsible for this weed. Now, I’m sure I butchered some details of the story, but that was the gist I took away after my stoned convertible ride through the ocean breeze-swept streets of Byron, as I filtered the story through Yantra’s Aussie accent.
I never actually got to smoke this weed (it did not finish, and appears would never finish in CO outdoors), but I did want to give it a post as an honorable mention. I grew out some of these seeds in Colorado’s 2020 outdoor season, one in full sun and the other in partial sun through the day.
Both plants were remarkably unusual, similar to one another, and equally as interesting. Unfortunately, only the one which was started mid-season was pictured. The other plant was a male that had to be killed on my own porch due some ridiculously-vigilant and nosy neighbors.
This female displayed some purple coloring on the actual flowers, possibly due to being exposed to freezing temperatures and some snow/hail—but that’s Colorado outdoor growing.
These plants were remarkably slow-growing, reminding me of OGKB, Purple Urkel, Bubba Kush, and some of the other unreasonably-slow broad leafs. This surprised me, as I figured two varieties like Malawi and ABC would create some significant hybrid vigor in the offspring.
Another notable trait of these plants was the texture of the leaves—They were really soft but also brittle. You could caress them and they’d have this unusually soft touch, but they would also “snap” or break in the middle of a leaflet with little provocation. They also sort of folded out of the plant as they grew, similar to a cabbage plant which was weird.
I also did not detect much aroma on these plants, but I sure would be curious what the finished flower would be like if these plants could make it—I wonder how long they would take to finish indoors too.
Overall, of course I am disappointed that I never smoked this weed. But these are some of the coolest seeds in my stash, and some of the most memorable to acquire!