Need some fauna/flora education

[longbowman]

Please, please don't let this post be controversial!! I'm just asking an honest question.  Also in the new TBM on page 17 within that article the author mentions huge marijuana plants in the field he's hunting?  Is this a name for a plant native to Nebraska other than the "smoking" kind or is this something legal in the state?

[Jim Jackson]

There are lots of members of the hemp family and Ditchweed is a common name for what the author was referring to.  It is really common in the upper midwest.  It doesn't contain significant amounts of THC, so it can't do anything to a person.

[rastaman]

It grows wild.  There have been articles about it as far back as 1971 in Outdoor Life by Joel Vance.  It is spread by the birds.

[longbowman]

Thank you very much for the information.  Around here the poor author would have already been arrested!

[SELFBOW19953]

Several years ago, a farmer grew some Kanaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) on State Game lands here in Delaware.  One of the game wardens called it in as a field of marijuana.  

Kanaf stalks are used for engineered wood, insulation, clothing-grade cloth, fibre boards, oil and liquid absorbent material, soil-less potting mixes, animal bedding, packing material, fiber for blending with resins for plastic composites, as a drilling fluid loss preventative for oil drilling muds, for a seeded hydromulch, as seeded grass mats for instant lawns and moldable mats for manufactured parts and containers.  The Kenaf seed oil is also used for cosmetics, industrial lubricants and for biofuel production.

Needless to say we all had a field day with the agents mistake.

[PowDuck]

No accusations intended - I promise!! It just caught my warped sense of humor that the first reply to your post, and the guy who wrote a very intelligent answer about the hemp plant was STONEY.    
       

[Jim Jackson]

Stoney as in "stonepoint" not "stoner"...      

You'd figure a high school teacher should know better than to pick that for an avatar...

[ron w]

It grows all over, but I have found some cultivated plants on state lands...they also left empty bags of Miricale Grow and other garbage around. Takes all kinds......

[Pat B]

During WWII the US government planted hemp for rope making for the war effort. This Canibus was developed for it's fiber and not for the intoxicating resins. Hemp(fiber type) has many uses from making paper and cloth making and many others and as an annual plant is a renewable resource. It is used all over the world and makes very strong cordage. I use hemp cord for handle wraps on many of my bows. I get it from Wally World but it is grown in Hungary.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

You can't hike far in any direction in Northern California without running into a plant or two.

[bozara]

I'm a native Nebraskan and worked pipeline construction in the summers while in high school and college.  The native mary jane may not be high in THC, but I'll guarantee you if one (not I, of course) smoked it, it did "something."

[newtradgreenwood]

The feral (naturalized) "ditchweed" that is escaped from plants breed for fiber in WWI or before is the same species as the intoxicating type that is cultivated and sold illegally.  Different cultivar or variant, but the same species.  In most states you could get arrested for having the for fiber variant in your possession.  Take a picture, laugh about it, do not put it in your pocket, pack, or vehicle.