Cannabis sativa L.
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Cannabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Stem 1–3 m; lfls lance-linear to lance-elliptic, pubescent, 5–15 cm, toothed; achene in ours mostly 3.8–4.5 mm. Native of Eurasia, cult. in many parts of the world, and found here and there in our range. Late summer. Complex sp., differentiated under the influence of cult. into a northern subsp. sativa, used for production of fiber (hemp) from the bast, and a southern subsp. indica (Lam.) E. Small & Cronquist, harvested for an intoxicating, hallucinogenic drug in the epidermal resin glands. The crude flowering or fruiting material is marijuana; the extracted resin is hashish. Plants growing wild in our range are all or nearly all descended from plants formerly cult. for fiber, and the resin has a relatively small percentage of intoxicant. They may be referred to subsp. sativa var. sativa. Our plants appear to be in process of reversion toward the wild-adapted var. spontanea Vavilov (C. ruderalis), marked by its relatively small size, and more especially by its smaller (less than 3.8 mm), irregularly blotched achenes with a variable period of dormancy. Parallel vars. adapted to growth in cult. or in the wild exist in subsp. indica.