Cannabis
Cannabis is an annual, dioecious, flowering herb. Cannabis plants usually have imperfect flowers with staminate "male" and pistillate "female" flowers occurring on separate plants, although hermaphroditic flowers can sometimes occur. This is known as monoecy.
Cannabis plants secrete cannabinoids (THC, CBN, CBD etc), terpenoids and other volatile compounds. These are secreted mostly by the female floral calyxes and bracts during the flowering cycle, and is thought to be a protective measure carried out by the plant.
All known strains of Cannabis are wind-pollinated and produce "seeds" that are technically called achenes.
Cannabis is believed to have originated in the mountainous regions just north west of the Himalayas. It has now spread globally and acclimatized in different areas through both natural and human influenced means. We now find three main varieties of cannabis, Cannabis sativa, cannabis indica, and cannabis ruderalis. All of which have their own distinct appearances and growth patterns discussed more on our cannabis breeding page.
Cannabis is also known as (indian) hemp, although this term usually refers to varieties of Cannabis cultivated for non-drug use, e.g. paper, fibre, oil, and food etc.
It is cannabinoids secreted by cannabis plants during flowering that produce the mental and physical effects, when consumed, for which cannabis is renowned, and both feared & praised. Meanwhile it is the terpenoids that give it its distinctive taste.
As a drug cannabis usually comes in the form of the dried flowering tops of the plants where the cannabinoids are concentrated, usually known as buds or marijuana. Often though the cannabinoids have been extracted from the plant matter, and are pressed into resinous lumps ranging in colour from a sandy yellow to a dark black. This is called hashish or resin and consists of the glandular trichomes found on the female flowering heads, separated from the flowerers and pressed together. Sometimes also cannabis is found in an oil form, although this is relatively rare since the 1970s.