Talk:RSC-LAO-VIE-0120220001
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Coordinates approximation
RSC gives only "Vientiane Province" and "along the stretch of the Mekong" at approximately 18° N latitude as the collection location. No specific locality, village, or commune is stated.
Coordinates recorded as 18.0000° N, 102.6000° E — a point on the Mekong riverbank in Vientiane Province at the latitude RSC cites. This is an approximation for mapping purposes, not a precise collection point. The two grounded data points (18° N latitude, Mekong River) are from RSC's product description.
Éloise 12:17, 17 April 2026 (+07)
Growth pattern inferred
RSC describes the plants as having "Sativa-type architecture." This was mapped to {{growth_pattern}} = "Christmas tree" as a working translation. RSC does not use the term "Christmas tree" directly.
Éloise 12:17, 17 April 2026 (+07)
Gene pool assignment
Recorded as "Southeast Asia" at the broad continental level. More specific options exist in the wiki already: "Highland Lao Gene Pool" (used for Bokeo) and "Lao-Isan Gene Pool" (used for Northeastern Thailand). Central Laos along the Mekong arguably fits "Lao-Isan" given the cultural and agricultural continuity with northern Isan that RSC emphasizes.
Left broad pending a clearer convention on how RSC accessions should relate to the existing gene pool vocabulary.
Éloise 12:17, 17 April 2026 (+07)
Southern Laos growing region & Lao-Isan Gene Pool
{{growing_region}} = "Southern Laos" was settled upon for this accession. The characteristics seem to describe a plant similar to plants found in cultivation along the Mekong in Southern Laos and across the river in Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom Provinces of Thailand; justifying this accession's tentative inclusion in both the Southern Laos growing region and the Lao-Isan gene pool.
The question of how far north the Southern Laos growing region extends remains open to debate.
Éloise 15:17, 20 April 2026 (+07)
Conservation priority judgment
Recorded at "High." RSC does not state specific threats to this population, but two compounding pressures are documented elsewhere:
- The China-Laos railway (opened December 2021) has increased state enforcement capacity and penetration into previously isolated cultivation areas, with crackdowns on drug crops reported since.
- Thailand's 2022 cannabis legalization collapsed the cross-border demand that had sustained Lao ganja cultivation, particularly for traditional landrace material (Thai consumers now favour modern hybrid genetics).
Combined enforcement pressure and demand collapse is a recognised landrace endangerment pattern — when economic rationale for cultivation disappears, traditional seed lines can be lost within a generation. "High" is assigned on this basis, not on direct field documentation of population decline.
Éloise 12:20, 17 April 2026 (+07)
"Lao Stick" commentary placement
RSC's observation that "Lao Stick" would have been a more accurate underground brand than "Thai Stick" is editorial commentary rather than verifiable history. Placed in a == Notes == section rather than under History. History section is reserved for verifiable trade/market events (Hippie Trail, 1960s–70s Western markets). Notes captures RSC's editorial voice and present-tense observations.
Proposed as a working convention for RSC accessions where the product page carries similar commentary.
Éloise 12:17, 17 April 2026 (+07)
Evidentiary scope
The article was compared with the current RSC listing and with the Kwik Seeds listing of the same line. Kwik Seeds is the shop RSC calls its other site (RSC, Hemp & Multipurpose). The listings name Vientiane Province and the Mekong and give no district, village or farmer. The two listings disagree on the harvest and on the seed's viability (below). The notes above on the growing region, the gene pool, conservation priority and the "Lao Stick" placement still apply. Éloise 23:19, 16 September 2026 (+07)
Georeferencing
The coordinate recorded above, 18.0000° N, 102.6000° E, does not lie in Vientiane Province. OpenStreetMap places it at Nongping village, Chanthabuly District, in Vientiane Prefecture, the capital, which is a separate first-level unit. It is replaced with the label point of Vientiane Province in OpenStreetMap (relation 5831667), rounded to two decimal places: 18.68, 102.07. It marks the province named in the listing, not a collection site. The listing's "along the stretch of the Mekong" cannot be placed within the province without more detail. Éloise 23:19, 16 September 2026 (+07)
Editorial treatment
Conform pass of 16 September 2026. The article was rewritten so that each statement is attributed to one of the listings, with CS1 citations.
- Coordinate moved into Vientiane Province (above).
- Removed from the article: the claim that the region "shares deep cultural and agricultural continuities around ganja cultivation" with northern Isan, which the listing does not make.
- Removed from the prose: the named collector. The infobox collector is unchanged.
- Isan now links to Northeastern Thailand.
- Local name. Neither listing gives one. The infobox now reads sa, gancha, from RSC's blog post of 22 November 2025, which says that people in Laos and Thailand call cannabis sa or gancha; RSC-THA-UBO-0420230001 carries the same pair from its own listing. The Lao-script form ກັນຊາ, the pronunciation "Kan sa" and the translation "Ganja" were entered when the page was built and are removed: they are in neither listing nor in RSC's blog, and no published source for them was found. Éloise 19:59, 17 September 2026 (+07)
- Not from either listing: photoperiod
Short-dayand introgressionMinimalfollow the other RSC accessions; neither listing states them. Éloise 23:19, 16 September 2026 (+07)
Source discrepancies
- Harvest. RSC: "Seeds collected from the winter 2022 / 2023 harvest". Kwik Seeds: "from Winter 2022 harvest".
- Viability. RSC: retested in summer 2025, "excellent germination rates (100%)". Kwik Seeds: on discount because "their viability may have dropped below 80%". The infobox keeps
Viable, following the dated RSC retest. - Growing period. RSC: "approx. 5 to 6 months"; earlier lines "closer to five months". Kwik Seeds: "Seed to Harvest = 6 months".
- Trade. RSC: "connected farmers in Laos and northern Isan". Kwik Seeds: "connected suppliers in Laos and Isan".
- Genetics line. RSC: "Lao – Thai Cannabis Landrace". Kwik Seeds: "Traditional Lao – Thai Ganja Domesticate".
- Archived versions. The Wayback Machine holds ten versions of the RSC listing, from July 2022 to May 2026. All were read, and all give the 2022 sourcing.
- The versions from July 2022 to March 2025 carry the Kwik Seeds wording "Seed to Harvest = 6 months" and "connected suppliers in Laos and Isan"; those up to March 2023 also say "A new accession".
- The same versions carry "Classification: C. sativa subsp. indica var. indica", which the article cites from the versions of 3 July 2022 and 26 March 2025.
- No version contains the Kwik Seeds note that viability "may have dropped below 80%". Éloise 02:50, 17 September 2026 (+07)
Photographs
The infobox image, uploaded in April 2026, is the listing's only photograph and shows seed. Its caption and alt text now say so. Éloise 02:50, 17 September 2026 (+07)
USDA genebank accession
The U.S. National Plant Germplasm System holds this seed as G 34096 (GRIN-Global entry), received on 3 August 2026 in a donation from Angus. The infobox lists it as the same lot as this accession:
- the donor's note on the entry, "Vientiane Province, Laos - cultivated for ganja", gives this accession's province;
- The GRIN entry gives no collection year, so the match rests on the listing's history: every archived version of the RSC listing, from July 2022 to May 2026, gives the 2022 sourcing, as the live listing still did in September 2026; RSC sold no other Central Lao lot before or after the donation.
The entry's collector field is not used as evidence: GRIN enters Angus as collector on most accessions of his donations, including lines whose narratives name another collector or none. Éloise 06:28, 4 October 2026 (+07)