# Strain

> 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.

- Canonical: https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/strain.html
- Also written: strains, strain name, strain names, weed strain, cannabis strain
- Glossary category: Genetics and breeding · Evidence: Supported
- 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"

"Strain" is the everyday word for a named type of cannabis. It has no formal botanical meaning; in microbiology a strain is a genetic variant of a microbe. In cannabis it can mean a clone, a seed line, a cross, or just a brand name on a jar.

## In practice

Use the word, but don't trust it. A name is a claim. Genetic studies of retail cannabis found that samples sold under the same name often differ genetically, and samples with different names can be near-identical (Sawler et al. 2015). Large chemical datasets show labels and names map poorly onto actual chemical profiles (Smith et al. 2022). Renaming a cut costs nothing and changes nothing in the plant.

What counts as evidence is documented lineage, a DNA comparison, a lab profile and grow reports. GenetixBay prefers "cultivar" for that reason, and records each plant with an ID rather than relying on a name.

## Don't confuse with

- **Cultivar**: the formal term, with defined standards of distinctness, uniformity and stability.
- **Chemovar**: a type defined by its chemistry.
- **Phenotype**: one plant's expression; a strain name often covers many [phenotypes](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/phenotype.md).

## Myth check

"A strain name tells you what genetics you're getting" is busted; see [why strain names are unreliable](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/genetics-history/why-strain-names-are-unreliable.md) and [Mythbusters](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/mythbusters.md).

## Related terms

[Cultivar](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/cultivar.md), [Chemovar](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/chemovar.md), [Clone-only](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/clone-only.md), [Genotyping](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/genotyping.md), [Landrace](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/glossary/landrace.md)

## Read more

- [Why strain names are unreliable: what genetic studies show](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/genetics-history/why-strain-names-are-unreliable.md)
- [Same cut, a thousand names: renaming, relabelling and the shrinking gene pool](https://genetixbay.com/knowledge/genetics-history/same-cut-a-thousand-names.md)

## Sources

1. Sawler J, Stout JM, Gardner KM, et al. 2015. The genetic structure of marijuana and hemp. PLoS ONE 10(8):e0133292. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0133292
2. Smith CJ, Vergara D, Keegan B, Jikomes N. 2022. The phytochemical diversity of commercial Cannabis in the United States. PLOS ONE 17(5):e0267498. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267498
3. Watts S, McElroy M, Migicovsky Z, Maassen H, van Velzen R, Myles S. 2021. Cannabis labelling is associated with genetic variation in terpene synthase genes. Nature Plants 7:1330-1334. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01003-y