'Indica' is a term often used to describe cannabis strains and products with strong physical, sedative, and relaxing effects. However, these terms are far more useful for growers than for users, as they're commonly used to describe the morphology or physical characteristics of the cannabis plant and its growth cycle, rather than its specific effects.
What is the origin of Indica cannabis seeds?
When the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus first published the scientific name Cannabis sativa in 1753, the only type of cannabis he had seen was the shorter, more robust plant we now know as hemp. After his death in 1785, the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck described and named a second species, Cannabis indica, meaning "Cannabis from India", as this was the origin of the first samples that reached Europe. Lamarck based his classification mainly on morphological differences, and he also noted that Cannabis indica was a more potent intoxicant.
Thus, indica and sativa were initially used to distinguish strains according to their place of origin. The shift to today's popular definition came in 1974, when biologist Richard Evans Schultes applied the term to marijuana plants in Afghanistan, which displayed a shorter stem and wider leaves. Today we reserve the Indica label for short, wide, bushy plants of Afghan heritage, although modern research suggests that there is in fact only one cannabis species, Cannabis sativa L., with indica simply being a subspecies.
Where do Indica strains derive from?
Native Indica landraces originated near Central Asia and spread to regions of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco, and Turkey. These are locally adapted strains, optimised through natural evolution to grow in their specific microclimates, generally between 30° and 50° of latitude.
What are Indica-dominant hybrids?
Crossbreeding has dominated the last 50 years of cannabis growing, virtually eliminating the possibility of finding pure indica or sativa strains. The way plants are classified nowadays generally means that a plant is predominantly one or the other. All modern strains are technically hybrid strains.
