Ruderalis refers to short, sparsely branched, early-maturing cannabis found growing wild or feral in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It was described as Cannabis ruderalis Janisch. in 1924. "Ruderal" means a plant of disturbed ground, such as roadsides and field edges. These populations often flower by age rather than night length and usually have low THC.
In practice
For growers, "ruderalis" mostly means "where the auto gene came from". Modern autoflowers carry the day-neutral trait introgressed into drug-type backgrounds over many generations, so a modern auto is overwhelmingly drug-type genetics plus the autoflowering locus. Its quality says nothing about wild ruderalis.
Calling an auto "a ruderalis hybrid" is fine as history. As taxonomy it is outdated.
Don't confuse with
- Autoflower: a trait and plant type; ruderalis is a population label.
- Hemp: a use category within the same species.
- Landrace: a farmer-selected local population, not a wild ruderal.
Myth check
"Indica, sativa and ruderalis are three species" is not the consensus. GenetixBay house position (Established): there is one species, Cannabis sativa L. Thousands of years ago there may have been more distinct groups, ruderalis included, but not today. See indica, sativa, ruderalis.
THC (Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol) is the neutral, decarboxylated cannabinoid mainly responsible for cannabis's reported intoxicating effects; the living plant makes it almost entirely as THCA.A day-neutral cannabis plant that starts flowering by age, usually a few weeks after germination, regardless of light schedule; the trait is mainly recessive.A gene is a stretch of DNA that carries the instructions for one functional product, usually a protein such as an enzyme, and is the basic unit of inheritance.Introgression is the movement of genes from one population or type into another through hybridisation followed by repeated backcrossing.A locus is the fixed position on a chromosome where a particular gene or DNA marker sits; the plural is loci.Hemp is cannabis grown for fibre, seed or other uses and, in many laws, defined as Cannabis sativa with no more than 0.3% THC by dry weight.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.The single botanical species, in the family Cannabaceae, that covers all hemp and drug-type cannabis; "L." credits Linnaeus, who named it in 1753.The daily length of light versus dark; photoperiod cannabis flowers when nights grow long enough, rather than at a fixed age.
