I just read through this entire 44 page thread, and I'll recap briefly:
-Timmah found some 30+ year old seeds in a cup he stashed in the 1970s.
-He believed that the seeds in question were pulled from a kilo of pedigreed Columbian gold (but might have been Maui Wowie).
-One seed germinated, turned female, and showed indica-type leaves, effectively proving that it is NOT the fabled Columbian Sativa strain.
-The plant in question appears to be curing right now, and if my timing is right, should be ready for "testing" pretty soon. Presumably a smoke report will be coming thereafter.
-Along the way two posters got into a urination fight, one saying in effect "my poo is better than anything from the 1970s and you're all wasting your time with this disco era stuff" and the other claiming "you weren't there and you really don't know what you're talking about".
And here we are.
As to myself, all I can say is that the Columbian gold did enjoy the reputation of being the best in its day. Or, to put it more specifically, of the various pot types commercially available in the USA in the mid/late 1970s, (Mexican, Panamanian, etc) the Columbian was supposed to be the best of them.
I never got to try it personally, though I would say, I'd be a lot more interested in trying something like that then whatever happens to be the genetically-incestual Dutch wonder-hybrid flavor of the month.
I have no reason to think that the famous Columbian shouldn't be as good as any of the top shelf stuff from today. Again, cannabis has been selectively bred by people for just about as long as recorded human history, at least several thousand years, and probably about as long as people have been breeding ANY plant. So genetic maximum potency (or pretty damn close) was undoubtedly achieved independently, many times and in many places on the globe.
In terms of true historical loss of the strain, it possible, but who knows?
Even though the stuff hasn't been imported into the USA in quantity since the Reagan administration, it seems probable that some of the "good stuff" would still have been grown in Columbia for local use more recently than that. For all I know some direct descendant of the 70s era strain may still be grown down there in some farmer's backyard.
Now, if some seeds could potentially survive in a coffee cup in the USA after thirty years, its got to be possible, if not probable, that some peasant in mountainous Columbia still has some old viable seeds stashed away somewhere.
One practical problem with these sorts of heirloom (not properly "landrace" since they've undoubtedly been selectively bred by people) strains is that after generations of natural and manmade selection, they'll do best in their native environment. Take "Columbia Gold" and try and grow it in your backyard, and you may well end up with "New Jersey Schwagg"!
