cannabis plants, it is reported by marihuana producers that hermaphrodites can
occur. Usually, hermaphrodites are plants that bear femaleflowers, with the pro-
duction also of maleflowers, ranging from a few to many (Fig.19.3), within the
flower buds or at leaf axils. Therefore, hermaphrodites are genetically female but
can become morphologically monoecious, by producing both female and male
flowers. Rarely will they produce only maleflowers. To artificially induce her-
maphrodites, producers can alter the photoperiod or apply plant hormones
(Rosenthal 1991 ; UNODC 2009 ). In addition, stress factors e.g. physical or
chemical stresses, late harvest, altering darkness periods, can cause maleflowers to
form. Other marihuana strains can be triggered to be hermaphroditic (especially
indicastrains) when the female plants are exposed to extended periods of darkness
early during growth (Rosenthal 1991 ). Rosenthal ( 2000 ) also suggested that her-
maphroditism could be induced in some strains by changing the photoperiod during
theflowering stage, although the exact conditions were not specified. Another
approach to induce development of both male and femaleflowers on the same plant
is through applications of chemicals such as 2-chloroethanephosphonic acid, gib-
berellic acid, aminoethoxyvinylglycine, silver nitrate, silver thiosulphate, or cobalt
chloride (Mohan Ram and Jaiswal 1970 , 1972 ; Mohan and Sett 1981 ). Rosenthal
( 1991 ) described applying gibberellic acid to a female plant two weeks prior to
flowering and then at the time offlower induction to successfully induce her-
maphroditism at the site of application. Silver nitrate is known to inhibit ethylene
action in plants (Kumar et al. 2009 ) and both gibberellin and silver nitrate appli-
cations can also affect sex expression in cucumber plants (Atsmon and Tabbak
Fig. 19.3 Maleflower formation within a female bud of marihuana (SourceAlchimia Blog:
https://www.alchimiaweb.com/blogen/marijuana-hermaphroditism)
400 Z.K. Punja et al.