Cannabis - strains and properties: one species, five chemotypes, label without coverage

How many species of cannabis does today’s botany distinguish?

One. Hemp is one species, whose varieties differ more in chemistry than in appearance. Modern taxonomy describes the genus Cannabis as a single species Cannabis sativa L. with two subspecies, and DNA barcode analysis places this division at the subspecies level, not separate species (McPartland, 2018).

The dispute is nearly three hundred years old. Linnaeus described one species in 1753. Lamarck distinguished a second in 1785, studying a plant imported from India, and named it Cannabis indica. Janischewsky added wild steppe hemp as Cannabis ruderalis in 1924. All these names were created before tools for comparing genomes existed, and they are the ones that circulate today on commercial labels.

McPartland’s review organizes the genus differently than trade. The Cannabaceae family now includes Cannabis, Humulus, and eight genera transferred from Celtidaceae. A molecular clock based on chloroplast DNA places the divergence of Cannabis and Humulus nearly twenty-eight million years ago, and fossil pollen data indicate the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau as the area of origin of the plant.

Formal names are C. sativa subsp. sativa and C. sativa subsp. indica, and this is where their agreement with what appears on the packaging ends. Field botanists assigned these names to their collections quite arbitrarily for two centuries, and the common crossing of both groups completed the rest. Common taxonomy has diverged from formal taxonomy to the extent that today they describe two different things: the first is the origin of the plant, the second the expected effect.

Why is the division into indica and sativa a commercial category rather than a biological fact?

Because the label has no coverage in the data describing specific pharmaceutical items. In this cluster, 85 cultivars present in Polish pharmacies are described. Eighty-one of them have any genetic label in databases, and where it appears more than once, the entries differ more often than they agree.

The numbers are simple. For 58 items, the label appears in more than one entry: it agrees for 27 of them and diverges for 31. For 23 items, it is provided by only one entry, so there is nothing to compare, and 4 items do not have it at all. Discrepancy is therefore more common than agreement wherever something can be compared at all.

Discrepancies are not cosmetic. Island Sweet Skunk is sometimes described as a hybrid, sometimes as a sativa. Galaxy Walker OG is sometimes described as a hybrid, sometimes as an indica. Lilac Diesel carries three different designations at once. It is the same name, the same product in circulation, and three answers to the question of what it actually is.

Formal taxonomy also does not confirm the duality in this form. A revision based on herbarium material separates four taxa instead of two and assigns commercial sativa and commercial indica to the same subspecies (McPartland and Small, 2020). Fifty years of crossing have blurred the boundaries between the plants available today, so the label describes more the buyer’s expectation than the origin of the plant.

What is a cannabis chemotype and where does its numbering come from?

A chemotype indicates which cannabinoid dominates in the inflorescence, and it is inherited simply. Crossbreeding plants with a pure cannabidiol profile with plants with a pure tetrahydrocannabinol profile yields in the F1 generation exclusively a mixed profile, and in the F2 generation a split in the ratio of one to two to one (de Meijer et al., Genetics, 2003).

The authors of this work proposed a model of a single locus B with two co-dominant alleles. Mixed profile plants are heterozygotes, pure profile plants are homozygotes, and both alleles encode different isoforms of the same synthase converting a common cannabigerol precursor. The same team later described plants with a predominance of cannabigerol and plants practically devoid of cannabinoids. This is where the five-step numbering comes from, which the literature still uses today.

The chemotype number says nothing about the potency or quality of the raw material, only about which biosynthetic pathway the plant has taken. It has the advantage that the trade name never has: it can be marked in the laboratory, and with a molecular marker even in a seedling, before the plant flowers.

Does the strain name say anything about the composition of the plant?

No, and this is the most common misunderstanding in strain descriptions. Names like Haze, Afghani, or OG Kush function in breeding descriptions as whole categories, not as single strains with known origins. The common part of the name does not prove kinship, and its absence does not exclude it.

The term kush carries ten cultivars in Polish pharmacies. Five of them have an established pedigree, and five have none at all: Afghan Kush, Hindu Kush, Master Kush, OG Kush, and Pink Kush appear in databases without parents. Blood Orange Kush, on the other hand, has parents described directly, and nothing connects it to Afghan Kush except one word in the name.

The scale of this phenomenon is measurable. Among 85 cultivars, 60 have a pedigree established by the breeder or consistent in available sources, and 25 have none at all because the breeder did not disclose the parents or the sources contradict each other. Entering a pedigree by intuition, based on name similarity, creates false kinships that later circulate in descriptions as fact.

Family styles behave the same way. Afghani, haze, or white widow are sometimes indicated as a parent, but they describe rather a broad breeding group than a single plant with established origin, so two cultivars sharing only such a parent are not automatically siblings. How to read the profile of a single item, we outlined in the guide to the cannabis strain profile.

What does the terpene profile say about the strain, and what does it not say?

It differentiates strains more strongly than appearance, but publicly available data is thinner than the tables circulating online suggest. Of the 85 cultivars, both Polish sources describe only 24. The composition agrees in three cases and differs in twenty-one, so agreement is the exception here, not the rule.

The remaining 57 items are described by one source, and 4 are not described by any. This is not a database flaw, but a market state: no one keeps a public register of the volatile composition of dried material allowed for circulation in Poland, so every table online is copied from commercial material or from another such table.

We do not provide percentage shares for terpenes, and this choice also has a measurable basis. The same items summed up from two data providers yield two different totals, both far from complete. A fraction without a named denominator does not say what part of what it describes. A number without a denominator looks in a text about pharmaceutical raw material like a measurement, but it is not a measurement.

Without numbers, it can be said that the leading component is most often caryophyllene, indicated for 30 items, followed by myrcene for 20 and limonene for 16. Terpinolene, nerolidol, and pinene close the ranking with single-digit results. The volatile composition is influenced by the cultivation method and how the dried material was brought to its final state, so even a solid measurement describes one batch, not the entire name.

Where is the legal boundary between fiber hemp and cannabis herb?

On the chemical value, not on the appearance of the plant. Fiber hemp is plants in which the sum of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and tetrahydrocannabinolic acid in floral or fruiting tops, from which resin has not been removed, does not exceed 0.3 percent when calculated on dry mass, rounded to one decimal place.

The basis is Article 4 point 5 of the Act of July 29, 2005 on counteracting drug addiction (Journal of Laws 2023 item 1939), in the wording in force since May 7, 2022. Previously, the threshold was 0.20 percent. A mirrored definition in Article 4 point 37 states that cannabis other than fiber is any above-ground part of the plant except seeds, in which the same sum exceeds this threshold.

The distinction between the sum and the neutral form itself is not a formality, as it changes the result of the laboratory test. In fresh raw material, the acidic form predominates, so measuring only the neutral form gives a value significantly lower than that which the official methodology tests. Thus, two laboratories may provide results for the same sample that appear contradictory, although both are correct.

The content itself does not legalize anything. Cultivating a variety outside the Community catalog of agricultural plant varieties remains illegal regardless of how much the plant contains, as the regulation requires seed material with confirmed varietal identity. The law thus uses both a chemical criterion and a varietal criterion simultaneously, and only both together describe a state compliant with the regulation.

What does this mean for reading descriptions of pharmaceutical strains?

That the name and genetic label do not replace testing a specific batch. In Polish pharmacies, 85 cultivars supplied by 16 manufacturers are currently described, and the same name from two different manufacturers may be a different raw material: from a different cultivation, with a different volatile profile, and with a different declared content.

The practical order of reading a description is the opposite of what the store shelf suggests. First the manufacturer and specific item, then the batch test, and only at the end the strain name, which serves as a commercial label. The chemotype answers the question of which biosynthetic pathway the plant has taken, not the question of how it will act on a specific patient.

We maintain a list of items currently available on the market in the list of medical marijuana strains, as the assortment changes with the rhythm of deliveries and permits. Why this number changes at all is described separately in the text about availability of strains, and what affects the potency of the raw material is discussed in the text about potency of strains.

Cannabis flower is a pharmaceutical raw material dispensed by a doctor’s prescription in the Rpw category. The parameters of therapy are determined by the attending physician based on examination and documentation, not the strain description or its genetic label. This text describes the state of knowledge about taxonomy and chemotypes and does not recommend anything.

Frequently asked questions about cannabis taxonomy and chemotypes

Is hemp and Indian cannabis the same species?

Yes. Modern taxonomy describes one species Cannabis sativa L. with two subspecies, and DNA barcode analysis places this division at the subspecies level, not separate species.

What is a cannabis chemotype?

It is information about which cannabinoid dominates in the plant’s inflorescence. The literature distinguishes five chemotypes, numbered from I to V, and this trait is inherited simply and can be marked in the laboratory.

Does the indica or sativa label say anything about the effect of the flower?

No, to a degree that could be defended by data. Among 58 pharmaceutical items, for which the label appears in more than one entry, sources agree for 27 and diverge for 31.

Why do you not provide percentage shares of terpenes?

Because sources do not provide a denominator. The total shares for the same items amount to forty-six once, seventy-three once, eighty-three percent once, so the number would look like a measurement, which it is not.

What is the threshold for fiber hemp in Poland?

The sum of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and tetrahydrocannabinolic acid must not exceed 0.3 percent of dry mass, rounded to one decimal place. The basis is Article 4 point 5 of the Act on counteracting drug addiction.

Does the common part of the name indicate kinship of strains?

No. The term kush carries ten pharmaceutical cultivars, five of which have no established pedigree at all, so the name is not evidence of kinship in any direction.

Editorial text: editorial team ubucha.pl. Cannabis flower is a pharmaceutical raw material dispensed by a doctor’s prescription in the Rpw category. The material is informational and does not replace medical advice.