Cannabis sativa L.

Hemp; Marijuana

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Hemp or Marijuana is an introduced herbaceous annual in the Hemp family (Cannabaceae) it is native to Asia. In Alabama it has been found in scattered locations across the state. Hemp is widely cultivated for fiber, seed oil, and birdseed and Marijuana is cultivated for its psychoactive chemicals. Plants are occasionally encountered as escapes or under clandestine cultivation, often on public lands. Hemp or Marijuana can be found on roadsides, along railroads, in fallow fields, in vacant lots, and in clearings in forests. Hemp and Marijuana are annuals with a tap root. Stems are 3- 18 feet in height, unbranched or branched mostly below the middle, green in color, and pubescent. Leaves are alternate or opposite, petiolate, with the blade digitately divided into 3-9 segments. The leaf segments are linear to linear-lanceolate, serrate, pubescent, and gland-dotted on the lower surface. Flowers are produced in erect compound panicles or cymes. Male and female flowers occur on separate plants. The fruit is an achene. Cannabis sativa is one of the oldest cultivated plants, and many varieties have been selected for. The taxonomy of the species has been debated from both scientific and legal perspectives. Hemp (the form used for fiber and with a mean leaf content of the psychotomimetic (hallucinatory) delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol of less than 0.3%) has been treated as Cannabis sativa subsp. sativa, or as Cannabis sativa L. interpreted in a restricted sense. Marijuana has been treated as Cannabis sativa subsp. indica (Lamarck) E. Small & Cronquist or as Cannabis indica Lamarck.--A. Diamond

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Not Native

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