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What are cannabis genetics?

Cannabis genetics is the inherited code, the genotype, that sets what a plant can produce; the phenotype is what that code becomes in a given room, shaped by light, nutrients and climate. That gap is why one strain name can test differently from one grower, or one batch, to the next.

Genotype and phenotype

The genotype is the DNA a plant carries: the range of what it could be. The phenotype is what you can observe, its height, structure, color, aroma, resin and chemical profile, the result of the genotype and the environment together. The same genotype can produce noticeably different phenotypes under different light, nutrients, climate and handling, and two seeds from the same cross can grow into plants that look and smell different.

Strains, cultivars and lineage

Strain is the everyday word for a named variety; cultivar, short for cultivated variety, is the horticultural one. A cultivar's lineage is its family tree, traced through its parents. Most modern cultivars are crosses of crosses, which is one reason the indica and sativa labels track chemistry poorly (see indica, sativa, hybrid). Lineage says where a plant came from; the batch's own lab results say what is in it.

Landraces

A landrace is a variety grown for a long time in one region, adapted to it and kept by local farmers rather than shaped by modern breeding. Landraces are the old foundations that many modern hybrids were bred from.

Phenotype hunting

Grow many plants from seeds of the same cross and each carries its own mix of its parents' genes, so each grows out a little differently; growers call these individual plants phenos. Phenotype hunting is growing out a batch and keeping the standouts, the plants with the structure, aroma, resin or chemical profile the grower wants, so they can be preserved and grown again.

Clones and seeds

A clone is a cutting taken from a mother plant and is genetically identical to it, so cloning a proven plant reproduces it batch after batch. A seed comes from pollination and carries genes from two parents, so seeds bring variation: essential for breeding new cultivars, and less predictable from plant to plant. Clones favor consistency; seeds favor discovery.

What it means when you shop

Treat a strain name as heritage: a starting point, not a guarantee. The growing, the phenotype that was kept and the processing all shape the finished product, so the same name can differ between producers and between batches. Read the batch's cannabinoid and terpene results instead (see how to read a lab label and the five-class spectrum).

General education only, not medical advice. For use only by qualified patients. Keep out of reach of children.