"Indica" is used for cannabis plants with broad leaflets, short stature, dense structure and relatively quick flowering. Historically some botanists named a separate species, Cannabis indica, and modern taxonomists still debate subspecies names. The current consensus treats cannabis as one species, Cannabis sativa L. (McPartland 2018; Small 2015).
In practice
On a label, "indica" is meant to promise relaxing, body-heavy effects. The evidence does not support that. Genetic studies show indica/sativa labels match measured ancestry poorly (Sawler et al. 2015), and chemical studies show labels do not predict cannabinoid or terpene profiles (Smith et al. 2022; Watts et al. 2021).
Almost everything sold today is a hybrid, with a few outlier landraces. Use the word, if at all, to describe shape: broad leaflets, compact build, shorter flowering. For effects, look at the lab profile and grow reports.
Don't confuse with
- Afghan or Hindu Kush landraces: real traditional populations often described as indica; the label is a later Western shorthand.
- Chemotype: the chemical class, which an indica label does not predict.
Myth check
House position: indica versus sativa is nonsense as a guide to effects or species. It is one species showing different phenotypes. See indica, sativa and ruderalis and Mythbusters.
One of the separate serrated blades that make up a palmate cannabis leaf; a mature fan leaf typically has five to eleven leaflets.The single botanical species, in the family Cannabaceae, that covers all hemp and drug-type cannabis; "L." credits Linnaeus, who named it in 1753.A cannabinoid is any compound that binds the body's cannabinoid receptors or shares the typical cannabis terpenophenolic structure; the plant-made ones are phytocannabinoids such as THCA and CBDA.A terpene profile is the measured mix of terpenes in a sample, reported as each compound's % w/w and the total, used to describe and compare cultivar aroma chemistry.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.Kush is a generic name for cannabis tied to landrace material from the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and now for its many hybrid descendants.A chemotype is a plant's chemical phenotype, in cannabis usually its dominant cannabinoid class: THC-dominant (I), mixed (II), CBD-dominant (III), CBG-dominant (IV) or cannabinoid-free (V).The phenotype is what a plant visibly and measurably is (shape, colour, smell, chemistry, timing), the result of its genotype acting in a particular environment.Sativa is a popular label for tall, narrow-leaflet, slower-flowering cannabis plants; it describes plant shape at most, and all cannabis belongs to one species, Cannabis sativa.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.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.
