Most leaf mutants have a detail that catches the eye at once. With Freakshow, it is the many narrow lobes; with Ducksfoot, the fused “fingers.” With SWAG, the teeth along the leaf edge disappear. The leaf becomes smooth, sometimes almost maple-like, sometimes stretching into a single blade.
The history of SWAG is tied to KalySeeds and the breeder whom TerpyZ calls Dr. Kaly. It is full of old names, changing pedigrees, forum photographs and later recollections.
A smooth edge
TerpyZ describes SWAG as a family of forms with fused leaflets and an unserrated edge. It includes broad leaves with several points, diamond-shaped and lance-shaped blades, and pleated and variegated leaves. The number of lobes and the overall shape can differ noticeably between neighboring lines, so a photograph of one plant does not show the whole family. TerpyZ overview of leaf forms
TerpyZ’s terminology also has a second name: PAC, Pseudoacercannabis. It is used for maple-like forms. On the TerpyZ pages, SWAG and PAC stand side by side, and SWAG is also explained as “smooth duck.” TerpyZ itself writes that the boundary between SWAG and AD is fluid. TerpyZ explanations
A smooth leaf on an unfamiliar plant does not make it a descendant of SWAG Original.
The nineties: Blueberry and Trinidad
In a later description of SWAG Original, which SeedFinder published on behalf of KalySeeds, the start of the work is dated to the first half of the 1990s. The starting point is a variegated Blueberry The first generation from a cross between two parents. F1 ↗ male. Shesherazade, Sweet Purple, NL#5 Haze, Jack Herer and Durban Poison follow in the account. The creator dates a stable webbed-leaf form called Trinidad to 2003, and SWAG Original to 2011.
All of these dates come from the creator himself. After 2011, he carries the SWAG name over to new branches, so SWAG Original from different years may differ in makeup. KalySeeds description
The description of another old line, Trinidat, preserves a personal story from the creator. He writes that he lost his plants in Germany in January 2006 and continued the work in Spain. He dates new leaf variants to 2009. KalySeeds account of Trinidat
The old Trinidat, the Trinidad of the later timeline, Trinidat Gold and Trinidad Gold SWAG are spelled alike, but they are separate entries in the catalogs.
First photos on the forum
On June 28, 2015, a user named hugo23 opened the KalySeeds SWAG thread on ICMag and posted photographs of his plants. He then showed material that he dates to the 2014 season. The post itself came out in 2015, while hugo23 gives 2014 from memory.
The conversation soon went beyond appearance. Participants asked about a possible relationship to ABC and to hops. Hugo23 himself leaned toward a cannabis leaf mutation. Donald Mallard also argued against the hops version. The hops debate began with the very first public discussions of SWAG. ICMag, June–August 2015
In November 2018, the same thread discussed plants named Giant Pur Pur, Ortiga and Dexter. A user named burmese complained that the information on Dexter had vanished during another catalog update. The name stayed on the forum, and the pedigree was lost. Continuation of the ICMag thread
The catalog has changed more than once, and today’s strain listing may differ from the one people saw ten years ago.
Hops in the pedigree
An old description of Legitimo, also preserved on SeedFinder, gives its ancestry as Purple Star and Japanese hops. The creator dates this line to 1998 and calls it an ancestor of PAC. It is through Legitimo that hops entered the old family trees. Archived description of Legitimo
Humulus japonicus rests in the SWAG pedigree on this catalog entry alone.
The SWAG Original page still shows the later account of Blueberry and Trinidad next to a family tree with the old connection through Legitimo. These are two versions from the same creator, and they do not merge into one.
TerpyZ × KalySeeds
The next lines came out under the joint name TerpyZ × KalySeeds. Opalo SWAG is described as an offshoot of SWAG OG: it has its own name, and its connection to the earlier collection is stated directly. Description of Opalo SWAG
On February 1, 2022, TerpyZ uploaded a photograph of Opalo SWAG to SeedFinder. By that date, the name was already in use. Photograph record
On June 4, 2020, DeMaddin posted on The-Greenleaf. He wrote that he had worked with KalySeeds for several months in 2015, and separately named SWAG, AD17 and Skinny Purple among the lines with smooth leaf edges. DeMaddin’s account
The KalySeeds circle
Around a smooth, unusually divided leaf, KalySeeds built its own circle of named lines.
Forums preserved the first reactions to these lines, and TerpyZ’s descriptions sorted the collection into several overlapping families. Next comes the story of Apricot Delia: the same circle of plants, with its own leaf shape and its own tangle of names.