Origins and Backstory: I was gifted the Pyxy Styx clone by way of my friend, @divineareslain. While I am generally not motivated by “hype” cuts, he insisted the Pyxy Styx was worth growing, and gave me some indoor-grown flowers. I thought it was indeed some high quality ganja, and wanted to see how it would do in my outdoor setting. I pollenated this plant with Royale with Cherries, and after seeing them both flower that year, the pairing seemed almost ideal in hindsight. Both plants are colorful, fruity, did well outdoors, with good density and frost factor. This is one of the resulting progeny from that cross.

Appearance: These plants were so cool to see grow outside. They grew large with chunky stems, chunky buds, and a noteworthy color. While some of my plants this year had purple accents from the Colorado Autumn temperature drops, Pyxy Styx x Royale with Cherries was the only plant that entirely turned purple. Stems, leaves, you name it—purple. It was really beautiful on its own, and added beauty by contrasting to my other entirely green plants. The plants grew huge colas on them, purple dense buds that were really covered in resin, giving them a frosty appearance. Really stout structure, vigorous and compact without being small. Finished flowers remind me almost of Grandaddy Purple or Grape Ape from years ago; the buds are small, rounded, heavily covered in resin, with all kinds of purple/reddish hues to them. The bag appeal is great. Resin glands feature huge heads, and I would guess that this variety yields pretty heavy in the wash.

Aroma: A somewhat equal blend of the parentage, this one does lean to the fruity and candied side. While I think the fruit could be more complex, it is mostly a sort of generic cherry with tones of grape present. There are sugary-sweet, almost artificial notes as well that are reminiscent of Pixie Stix and other processed candies. Sweet, skunky, and very loud when it’s in a bag in your pocket, the aroma from afar is very enticing indeed, and you really cannot hide the fact you’ve got any weed on you. Up close, the smell is fruity like a cherry hard candy, sweet, and sugary. I do think this variety is worth looking through more, as I am sure this particular plant’s sisters harbor more nuanced and deeper aromatic profiles. However, friends did seem to enjoy this one and seemed to comment positively on the smell, so it must only be lacking a bit for snobby critics like me!

Flavor: Following the aroma, the flavor is fruity with notes of cherry up front, and surprisingly more of a skunky rubber thing going on in the taste than in the smell. There are also strong herbal and botanical notes that I can’t quite place, but do remind me of being in an apothecary with varying dried botanics. It’s relatively complex, but I personally like a super-complex, candied fruit thing if the weed is going to be fruity, such as Cherry West. I appreciate fruit flavors that pop, and the fruit here is just a bit too generic for me. That said, nobody would say this weed tastes bad. I just prefer the mouth-coating punch of ‘87 Limepop (most of the time) when I’ve got them both on the shelf.

Effects: A classic indica, and potent. Most indicas aren’t so strong that they inspire paranoia, but Pyxy Styx x Royale with Cherries does that to me from time to time. Maybe it is the sheer quantity of resin, but this plant always gets me in a red eyed, squinty, dream state where I have trouble keeping a conversation with strangers (and likely those I’m familiar with too). It is the great kind of high for sitting at home and watching movies or playing video games or whatever other low-responsibility, low-motor activities you might want to engage in. It’s great for getting the munchies, the giggles, killing pain, inspiring classic stoney thoughts (although I certainly wouldn’t say it brightens your bulb) and sleep. This kind of weed of course has it’s place and most of us have had it before, but is not the kind of feeling I want to have all the time, and definitely not all day.

Overall: Overall, I think there is something here. I also know there are things to be improved on in these seeds, and selecting from a large number would be a worthwhile endeavor. I loved the resin, color, and structure of this particular plant. I loved how loud it was. However, I think the bouquet could be improved, could be fruitier and more complex. This plant was also very attractive to bud caterpillars, while all of the ‘87 Limepop and Black Lime 15 next to it didn’t have any caterpillar damage. Maybe there are sisters to this plant that are caterpillar-resistant—my point being, these are good and everyone who smoked the (caterpillar-free) weed really enjoyed it, myself included. However, any seasoned growers know that there are levels to cannabis, and I think this one has a notch to go in order to be classified as an “elite” that you might clone again and again. Definitely worth the grow, and I’d love to see more expressions in my own and others gardens.