Regeneration of shoots from immature and mature inflorescences of Cannabis sativa

Abstract

Cannabis sativa is usually clonally propagated from plants in the vegetative phase. However, phenotypic traits such as yield and chemical composition can only be assessed in unfertilized plants reaching the end of their life cycle and there are no peer-reviewed methods to propagate flowering plants. In this study, immature (three cultivars) and mature (one cultivar) floral explants were cultured on thidiazuron and shoot development was observed in both the immature and mature explants. This provides the first report of micropropagation from floral tissues in C. sativa and will enable plants to be clonally propagated up to the date of harvest.