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Cannabis sativa

(Marihuana Marijuana)

Overview

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New world in post-Columbian. China >4,500 yrs ago. Once the best form of canvas (derived from Cannabis). Subsp. indica=narcotic, var . kafiristanica=wilnd; subsp. sativa=fibre, (wild=var. spontanea) from Central Asia, valued by Chinese 6500 BC as sole source of fibre; as a fibre plant it often reaches 6m in height (once recognised as a variety, var, gigantea). It came to Europe in 1000-2000BC; to Chile in 1545. Until 19th C, it was the most important cordage fibre. Narcotics , China 3000 BC, esp developed India in last 1000 years. (Simmons and Smartt, 1995). Maybe the narcotic principles only evolved in the hotter climates once it was moved to India. Galen of Pergamos states that it in 200 AD it was customary to give guests hemp seeds, probably with resin on their seed coats , to eat, to promote hilarity (Burkill, 1925). It is probably the biggest cash crop in the US, worth 32 $Billion (Mabberley, 1997). Ganja (female fl heads ); bhanf (mature leaves); charas (resin from stems and leaves). Hemp seed oil was used to fuel Nazi tanks . Used in treatments for arthritis and asthma in Grenada (Politi, 1996), and elsewhere to treat glaucoma (Politi, 1996) Thus the leaves and smaller stalks , dried and broken coarsely, and intermixed with a few capsules, is known as Mang (Hindustan), siddhi (Bengal), sabzi (Bombay), and hashish (Arabia). Our modern term assassin is said to have arisen from this word, the name Hashshashin (assassin), having been applied to a murderous Persian sect, which, in its religious rites, used hemp (hashish) to intoxication. Bhang is almost tasteless, and is of a dark-green color. It is smoked with tobacco, or without the latter, but usually is incorporated into a sweetmeat known as majun. The flowering and fruiting tops, from which the resin has not been removed, are known as ganja, ganjah, or gunjah in India, and as guaza in London and other drug markets. The green plant collected in the spring , and 2 or 3 twigs placed in or between beds , will, it is asserted, certainly and effectually cause bedbugs to remove from the room in which they are used.

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Arabic:

Qinnib, Tîl

Common Names in Chinese:

Ye Ma

Common Names in English:

Grass, Hashish, Hemp, Indian Hemp, Marihuana Marijuana, Marijuana, Mary Jane, Maryjane, Pot, Vilov, Wild Hemp

Common Names in Finnish:

Hamppu, Kannabis

Common Names in French:

Cannabis, Chanvre, Chanvrier, Chanvrier Sauvage

Common Names in German:

Hanf

Common Names in Japanese:

Mashinin

Common Names in Nepalese:

Cares, Gaanjaa (Ganja), Gajiimaa (Gajima)

Common Names in Romanian:

Cânepă

Common Names in Russian:

Kannabis Sativa

Common Names in Swedish:

Hampa

Common Names in Thai:

Porkanchaa

Description

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Family Cannabaceae

Herbs, annual or perennial , erect or twining , dioecious or sometimes monoecious, often with cystoliths (a hard calcium carbonate structure at base of a hair) . Stems furrowed or winged . Stipules free . Leaves alternate or opposite, palmately lobed or compound , sometimes simple . Male inflorescences a bracteate cymose panicle. Male flowers: pedicellate ; sepals 5, free; petals absent; stamens 5, opposite sepals; filaments short; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscent by longitudinal slits. Female inflorescences a bracteate spicate cyme much reduced in Cannabis, pendent or erect. Female flowers: sessile; calyx appressed to ovary, membranous; petals absent; ovary 1-loculed; ovule solitary, pendulous from locule apex; style 2-parted, branches filiform . Fruit an achene, covered by persistent calyx; endosperm fleshy ; embryo curved or spirally involute .

Two genera and four species: N Africa, Asia, Europe, North America; two genera and four species (one endemic) in China.

Because all the Chinese species in this family are cultivated and are often found naturalized in disturbed habitats , it is difficult to know the true wild distributions.

Cannabaceae has sometimes been included in Moraceae or Urticaceae but is now usually recognized as a distinct family. The subfamily Celtidoideae of Ulmaceae could possibly be included within Cannabaceae (see the discussion after the Ulmaceae family description ) .[1]

Genus Cannabis

Herbs, annual , erect , taprooted. Stems simple to well branched, without 2-branched hairs . Leaves palmately compound ; petiole not twining , without 2-branched hairs. Leaf blade : surfaces abaxially sparsely to densely pubescent . Inflorescences: staminate inflorescences compound cymes or panicles, erect; pistillate pseudospikes, congested , erect to spreading . Flowers: staminate and pistillate on different plants , sometimes on same plants, especially in cultivars. Achenes lenticular , enclosed within enlarged perianth; embryo curved . x = 10.

Species 1: widespread in temperate regions , nearly worldwide.

Many populations of Cannabis sativa have been established largely from escapes from former cultivation and, sporadically, from clandestine cultivation.

One of the oldest cultivated plants , hemp was widely used in Neolithic China in the Yang Shao culture (ca. 4000 B .C.). Many legends understandably surround its origins and popularity. Its tough and durable fiber, excellent for rope, cordage, paper, canvas, sailcloth, and fish nets , prompted its initial spread throughout the world. The seeds are very nutritious; they are an important constituent in birdseed mixes, and the seeds, as well as the edible oil from seeds, are marketed as an excellent food source for human consumption . Oil from the seeds was also used in paints and varnishes and as fuel for lamps (B. B. Simpson and M. Conner-Ogorzaly 1986). Hemp was a major economic crop in the American colonies because of the demand for rope in agricultural, maritime, and military pursuits. Probably best known today for its psychoactive chemicals, it is used legally by physicians in the treatment of glaucoma and to relieve nausea in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation (B. B. Simpson and M. Conner-Ogorzaly 1986).

Until 1970 marihuana was legally controlled in the United States by the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which levied a transfer tax for which no stamps or licenses were available to private citizens. Cannabis is now controlled by the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Act of 1970. In Canada marihuana has been controlled since 1938 by an amendment to the Narcotic Control Act (D. E. Mustol 1991).

The vernacular name hemp refers both to the plant and to its commercially extracted bast fibers. Most other terms refer both to the plant and to drug preparations of it.[2]

Physical Description

Species Cannabis sativa

Staminate plants usually taller, less robust than pistillate plants. Stems 0.2-6 m. Leaves: petioles 2-7 cm. Leaflet blades mostly 3-9, linear to linear-lanceolate, 3-15 × 0.2-1.7 cm, margins coarsely serrate; surfaces abaxially whitish green with scattered , yellowish brown, resinous dots, strigose , adaxially darker green with large, stiff, bulbous-based conic hairs . Inflorescences numerous . Flowers unisexual , often transitional flowers and flowers of opposite sex developing later. Staminate flowers : pedicels 0.5-3 mm; sepals ovate to lanceolate, 2.5-4 mm, puberulent ; stamens caducous after anthesis , somewhat shorter than sepals; filaments 0.5-1 mm. Pistillate flowers ± sessile, enclosed by glandular , beaked bracteole and subtended by bract; perianth appressed to and surrounding base of ovary. Achenes white or greenish, mottled with purple, ovoid , somewhat compressed , 2-5 mm, with ± persistent perianth that sometimes flakes off. 2 n = 20. Flowering early summer-fall; staminate plants generally dying after anthesis, pistillate plants remaining dark green, persisting until frost. [source]

Cannabis sativa has been reported as cultivated illegally and as apparently ruderal in all provinces and states except Alaska. It has been collected least frequently in Mississippi and Idaho. It seems to be best established in the prairies and plains of central North America. [source]

Hemp is a short-day plant ; flowering depends upon the latitude of origin . Races originating closer to the equator (and generally higher in psychointoxicant) require a longer induction period for flowering than races originating farther north. [source]

The taxonomy of Cannabis sativa, a polymorphic species, has been debated in scientific and legal forums. The name C. sativa subsp. indica (Lamarck) E. Small & Cronquist has been applied to plants with a mean leaf content of the psychotomimetic (hallucinatory) delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol of at least 0.3%; those with a lesser content fall under C. sativa subsp. sativa. When separate species are recognized, the name C. indica Lamarck has generally been applied to variants with high levels of the intoxicant chemical, whereas the name C. sativa Linnaeus, interpreted in a restricted sense, has generally been applied to plants selected for their yield of bast fibers in the stems. (The latter generally have taller, hollow stems with longer internodes and less branching than races selected for drug content.) [source]

Superimposed on this dimension of variation is selection for nonabscising achenes in cultivation and abscising achenes in the wild (i.e. , outside of cultivation). This is analagous to selection of nonshattering cereals from wild, shattering grasses. Achenes selected for cultivation tend to be longer than 3.8 mm and lack a basal constricted zone; by contrast, achenes selected for wild existence tend to be shorter than 3.8 mm and to have a basal constricted zone that seems to facilitate disarticulation and a mottled, persistent perianth apparently serving as camouflage . [source]

Within Cannabis sativa subsp. sativa, the wild phase has been named C. sativa var. spontanea Vavilov (= C. ruderalis Janishevsky), in contrast to the domesticated C. sativa var. sativa. Within C. sativa subsp. indica, the wild phase (not to be expected in North America) has been designated C. sativa var. kafiristanica (Vavilov) E. Small & Cronquist, as distinct from the domesticated C. sativa var. indica. The chemical and morphologic distinctions by which Cannabis has been split into taxa are often not readily discernible, appear to be environmentally modifiable, and vary in a continuous fashion. For most purposes it will suffice to apply the name Cannabis sativa to all plants encountered in North America. [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Flowers: Bloom Period: May, June, July, August, September, October.

Habitat

Well-manured, moist farmyards, and in open habitats , waste places (roadsides, railways, vacant lots ), occasionally in fallow fields and open woods ; 0-2000 m [3].

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 3,262 meters (0 to 10,702 feet).[4]

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Annual

Taxonomy

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Notes

Publishing author : Lam. Publication : Encyc. i. 695 Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication: Sp. pl. 2:1027. 1753

Name verified on 06-May-1992 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 23-Aug-1994

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Cannabis

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 28 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

C. americana · C. chinensis · C. erratica · C. foetens · C. generalis · C. gigantea · C. indica · C. intersita · C. kafiristanica · C. lupulus · C. macrosperma · C. ruderalis · C. sativa (Marihuana Marijuana) · C. sativa 'Chamaeleon' · C. sativa 'Finola' · C. sativa 'Grace' · C. sativa indica (Indian Hemp) · C. sativa 'Medisins' · C. sativa sativa (Common Hemp) · C. sativa spontanea · C. sativa spontanea var. spontanea (Indian Hemp) · C. sativa subsp. indica (Marijuana) · C. sativa L. 'USO 31' · C. sativa var. indica · C. sativa var. kafiristanica · C. sativa var. ruderalis · C. sativa var. sativa (Marijuana) · C. × intersita

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 12, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Zhengyi Wu, Zhe-Kun Zhou & Bruce Bartholomew "Cannabaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 5 Page 74. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Cannabis". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. "Cannabis sativa". in Flora of North America Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  4. Mean = 159.510 meters (523.327 feet), Standard Deviation = 247.030 based on 1,818 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/1/2009