A cultivar is the formal botanical term for a cultivated variety: a population of plants selected for particular traits that is distinct from others, sufficiently uniform, and stable when propagated. The rules for naming cultivars are set by the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP). A cultivar can be a seed line or a clonal line.
In practice
GenetixBay uses "cultivar" in place of "strain" where precision matters. A clone-only is a clonal cultivar. A seed line that breeds true for its key traits is a seed cultivar. A pack of seed from a one-off cross of two hybrids is, strictly, not yet a cultivar: its plants are not uniform or stable.
Formal cultivar names under the ICNCP are written in single quotes after the species, for example Cannabis sativa 'Name'. Plant variety protection systems use similar tests of distinctness, uniformity and stability.
Don't confuse with
- Strain: the popular cannabis word; used loosely for anything from a clone to a brand name.
- Chemovar: a cultivar defined by its chemistry.
- Landrace: a traditional, locally adapted population, often more variable than a modern cultivar.
- Variety (botanical rank): "var." is a formal taxonomic rank below species, different from a cultivar.
A clone-only is a cultivar that exists only as cuttings from one original plant, with no seed line that reliably reproduces it.A true-breeding line produces offspring that consistently look like the parents for a given trait, because the plants are homozygous for the alleles behind it.A hybrid is the offspring of two genetically different parents; almost all modern cannabis is hybrid, built from crosses between landrace-derived and other lines.The single botanical species, in the family Cannabaceae, that covers all hemp and drug-type cannabis; "L." credits Linnaeus, who named it in 1753.Plant variety protection (plant breeders' rights) is an intellectual property right for a new plant variety that is distinct, uniform and stable, typically 20-25 years.A chemovar is a cultivar defined and named by its chemical profile, chiefly cannabinoids and terpenes, rather than by its appearance or a market strain name.A landrace is a traditional, locally adapted cannabis population kept by farmers in one region over many generations, with its own type and plenty of internal variation.Strain is the popular word for a named cannabis variety; it is used loosely, and studies show strain names are an unreliable guide to genetics or chemistry.An accession is a distinct sample of plant material (seed, tissue or cuttings) entered into a collection or gene bank under its own ID with records of origin.
