# Skunk

> Skunk is a generic name for a family of early hybrid cultivars from the 1970s and 1980s, and for the pungent, musky aroma they made famous.

- Canonical: https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/skunk.html
- Also written: skunky, skunk weed, skunk strains, skunk family
- Glossary category: Grower slang and culture · Evidence: Grower practice
- Status: Draft: awaiting expert review · Updated: 2026-10-31
- Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), attribute "GenetixBay cannabis glossary"

Skunk refers to an influential family of hybrid lines developed in the 1970s and 1980s from Afghan, Mexican and Colombian material, and to the sharp, musky, skunk-like smell they carried. In UK slang "skunk" also became a general word for strong indoor herbal cannabis.

## In practice

Skunk lines were among the first [stabilised](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/stabilisation.md) [hybrids](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/hybrid.md) widely distributed as seed, and they underpin a huge part of modern indoor genetics. Original-era skunk cuts with the classic pungent aroma are now rare, many surviving only as [clone-only](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/clone-only.md) plants in small circles. That scarcity is one reason GenetixBay pushes for open preservation of old cuts, seed and males.

Research links the skunky smell to minor [volatile sulfur compounds](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/volatile-sulfur-compounds.md) rather than to the main [terpenes](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/terpene.md).

## Don't confuse with

- **UK "skunk"**: a media and street word for any strong indoor flower, not a lineage.
- **Gas**: overlapping pungent profile, mostly from later lineages.

## Related terms

[Kush](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/kush.md), [Haze](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/haze.md), [Elite cut](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/elite-cut.md), [Gas](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/gas.md)

## Read more

- [How hybrid 'strains' emerged](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/genetics-history/how-hybrid-strains-emerged.md)
- [Clone-only cuts and how to preserve them](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/breeding/clone-only-preservation.md)

## Sources

1. Clarke RC, Merlin MD. 2013. Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany. University of California Press.