Cannabis sativa

Not to be confused with Cannabis indica.

Cannabis sativa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Cannabaceae
Genus:	Cannabis
Species:	C. sativa
Binomial name
Cannabis sativa Linnaeus
Subspecies
C. sativa subsp. sativa C. sativa subsp. indica

Cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous plant in the Cannabaceae family. Humans have cultivated this herb throughout recorded history as a source of industrial fibre, seed oil, food, recreation, spiritual enlightenment and medicine. Each part of the plant is harvested differently, depending on the purpose of its use.

Known varieties

Described strains and hybrids below have been used both in medical and entheogenic context.

Medical cannabis

Main article: Medical cannabis

Sativa-dominant hybrids

This is a list of ℞ Cannabis strains carried by dispensarys.

• Asian Fantasy
• Belladonna
• BOG L.S.D.
• Cindirella 99 (C99)
• George Bush
• Jack Herer - Cannabis cups Counterculture Hall of Fame 2003. Also parent to many cannabis hybrids.
• LSD
• Special K
• Super Silver Haze - first prize winner at the High Times Cannabis Cup in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and also won awards at the High Times harvest festival
• Super Skunk

Religious and spiritual use of cannabis

Main articles: Religious and spiritual use of cannabis and Entheogen

Pure sativa strains

• Malawi Gold

Sativa-dominant hybrids

• Haze (Original Haze) - Also parent to many cannabis hybrids including most winners of High Times Sativa Cup.
• SAGE (Sativa Afghani Genetic Equilibrium)
• Shaman

Plant physiology

Main articles: Cannabis and Cannabis cultivation

The bud of a Cannabis sativa plant

Cannabis sativa, scientific drawing from c1900

Classified and first named in 1735, by the famous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus.

The Cannabis plant is a lush , fast-growing annual , which can reach maturity in 60 days when grown indoors, and after 3-5 months in outdoor cultivation, it has characteristic finely branched leaves subdivided into lance shaped leaflets with a saw tooth edge.

The flowers of the female plant are arranged in racemes and can produce hundreds of seeds. Male plants shed their pollen and die several weeks prior to seed ripening on the female plants. Although genetic factors dispose a plant to become male or female, environmental factors including the diurnal light cycle can alter sexual expression.^{[citation needed]} Naturally occurring monoecious plants, with both male and female parts, are either sterile or fertile but artificially induced "hermaphrodites" (a commonly used misnomer) can have fully functional reproductive organs. "Feminized" seed sold by many commercial seed suppliers are derived from artificially "hermaphrodytic" females that lack the male gene, or by treating the seeds with hormones or silver thiosulfate.

A Cannabis plant in the vegetative growth phase of its life requires more than 12–13 hours of light per day to stay vegetative. Flowering usually occurs when darkness equals at least 12 hours per day. The flowering cycle can last anywhere between nine to fifteen weeks, depending on the strain and environmental conditions.

In soil, the optimum pH for the plant is 6.3 to 6.8. In hydroponic growing, the nutrient solution is best at 5.2 to 5.8, making Cannabis well-suited to hydroponics because this pH range is hostile to most bacteria and fungi.

• Cultivars primarily cultivated for their fiber, characterized by long stems and little branching.
• Cultivars grown for seed from which hemp oil is extracted.
• Cultivars grown for medicinal or recreational purposes. A nominal if not legal distinction is often made between industrial hemp, with concentrations of psychoactive compounds far too low to be useful for that purpose, and it is also known as marijuana.

Pharmacology

Main article: Cannabis (drug)

Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)

Although the main psychoactive chemical compound in Cannabis is Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant is known to contain about sixty cannabinoids; however, most of these "minor" cannabinoids are only produced in trace amounts. Besides THC, another cannabinoid produced in high concentrations by some plants is cannabidiol (CBD), which is not psychoactive but has recently been shown to block the effect of THC in the nervous system. Differences in the chemical composition of Cannabis varieties may produce different effects in humans. Synthetic THC, called dronabinol, does not contain CBD, CBN, or other cannabinoids, which is one reason why its pharmacological effects may differ significantly from those of natural Cannabis preparations.

Chemical constituents

Cannabis chemical constituents including about 100 compounds responsible for its characteristic aroma. These are mainly volatile terpenes and sesquiterpenes.

• Δ⁹-Tetrahydrocannabinol
• Cannabidiol (CBD), an isomer of THC
• Cannabinol (CBN), a metabolite of THC
• α-Pinene
• Myrcene
• Trans-β-ocimene
• α-Terpinolene
• Trans-caryophyllene
• α-Humulene, contributes to the characteristic aroma of Cannabis sativa
• Caryophyllene-oxide, with which some hashish detection dogs are trained

Common uses

Main articles: Industrial and personal uses of Cannabis, Cannabis (drug), and Hemp

A sack made from hemp fiber

Its seed, chiefly used as caged-bird feed, is a valuable source of protein. The flowers (and to a lesser extent the leaves, stems, and seeds) contain psychoactive and physiologically active chemical compounds known as cannabinoids that are consumed for recreational, medicinal, and spiritual purposes. When so used, preparations of flowers (marijuana) and leaves and preparations derived from resinous extract (hashish) are consumed by smoking, vaporizing and oral ingestion. Historically, tinctures, teas, and ointments have also been common preparations.

See also

• Cannabis (drug)
• Cannabis indica
• Cannabis ruderalis
• Cannabis flower essential oil
• Hemp
• Medical cannabis
• Religious and spiritual use of cannabis