ABSTRACT
Given that Cannabis sativa is the world’s most controversial plant from the perspectives of the law and medicine, it should not be surprising that there have also been profound disagreements with respect to its taxonomy (scientific classification). This chapter examines C. sativa in the light of the criteria that botanists employ to classify plants like it, in which variation deserving to be categorized has been brought into existence by both nature and humans. As has been documented in this book, C. sativa occurs widely in nature as free-living populations adapted to local climates, as well as domesticated kinds differentially selected for fiber in the stem, a multipurpose oil in the “seeds” (achenes), or an intoxicating resin secreted by pin-sized epidermal glands. The variation pattern of C. sativa is complex, but the causes of variation are clear and provide guidance for an appropriate interpretive classification scheme. The following relatively extensive presentation of classification theory and practice is required because, with the exception of how living populations of the human species Homo sapiens should be classified (note Figure 18.1) and how extinct relatives in the genus Homo should be interpreted (Figure 18.2), no other species has generated so much misunderstanding, argument, and contradictory literature.
