Hybrid Cannabis Strains Australia

Hybrid Cannabis Strains Australia. If you become a medical cannabis patient and your doctor prescribes you dried flower, it’s likely that your prescription will come with both a product name and the name of the cannabis strain the product comes from. Cannabis strains often have evocative names like Wedding Cake, Green Gelato and Peanut Butter MAC, which may sound delicious, but don’t tell you much about what makes the strains different from one another. And while the names of marijuana strains often suggest different effects, smells and flavours, from a therapeutic perspective it’s more important to pay attention to the cannabinoid and terpene content. As a patient, it’s helpful to learn where strains come from and why they’re so pervasive in cannabis culture, as well as their relevance from a medical perspective.

What Is a Cannabis Strain?

All medical cannabis (and recreational cannabis) comes from the Cannabis sativa plant. This flowering plant with broad leaves has been cultivated for thousands of years, with medical usage being recorded as far back as 2800 BC.

Cannabis is a complex plant that contains hundreds of active compounds, including cannabinoids such as THC and CBD, flavinoids and terpenes. As they spread around the world, cannabis plants evolved into several distinct strains called “landraces,” which were adapted to the environment where they grew. For example, plants that grew in the high-altitude mountains of Afghanistan were very different from those that evolved in the heat of the Mexican sun.

How Did Modern Cannabis Strains Evolve?

Over the last century – and especially over the past few decades – cannabis enthusiasts began experimenting by breeding these distinct landraces to create new strains. They discovered that each strain presented with a unique smell, flavour and appearance, not to mention different psychoactive effects. During the 1960s, cannabis breeders in California introduced strains from the Himalayas, which grew better in the California climate than strains from Central America. As they experimented, they created new weed strains, many of which are now legendary, such as Skunk, Northern Lights and Haze.

Since then, breeders have continued to create new strains by breeding new and old together. Each year, slight variations accumulate and eventually create new strains. A 2015 study suggested there were more than 700 cannabis strains currently being cultivated, while a user-generated database like Leafly documents more than 6,500.

What’s The Difference Between Marijuana Strains?

Marijuana strains have unique genetic profiles that affect many aspects of the plant, including:

• Cannabinoid content: each strain has a unique combination of THC, CBD and other cannabinoids, which influences its psychoactive effects.

• Terpene content: terpenes are aromatic compounds that affect the flavour and smell of cannabis. Again, each strain contains a distinct mixture of terpenes like limonene, myrcene, and pinene.

• Appearance: cannabis plants can look very different. Leaf size and shape, flower colour and the number and distribution of buds all vary.

• Flavour and smell: because the terpene content of cannabis strains varies, each strain has a unique smell and taste. Strain flavours are often described as “floral,” “earthy,” “sour” and “citrus,” among many other adjectives.