Cannabis Science 101 Chapter – Botanical Overview

CHAPTER Il Cannabis Science 101 m The Cannabis Plant Cannabis is a genus of flowering plant indigenous to Eurasia. For millennia, humans have consumed cannabis for therapeutic, medicinal, social or spiritual purposes and have used the seeds and fibrous stalks of the cannabis plant to produce goods such as rope, paper, clothing and soap. There are at least three principal cannabis species: Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and Cannabis ruderalis.' These three species can be distinguished by their plant structures and leaves. Sativa plants are generally tall, thin and wispy; indica plants tend to be shorter and bushier than sativa plants; and rud- eralis plants are shaggy and the shortest of all three species. The following pictures depict the Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica and Cannabis ruderalis plants and their leaves. Cannabis Sativa Plant Cannabis Indica Plant Cannabis Ruderalis Plant ‘Botanists disagree about whether sativa, indica and ruderalis are distinct species or are instead distinct subspecies of a single plant species. Some botanists propose renaming these three species to reflect their geographic origins. This report takes no position on these botanical debates; it merely adopts one set of commonly used nomenclature. © 2017 Ackrell Capital, LLC | Member FINRA/SIPC 15 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_024651