Common name: Marijuana, Hemp, Gallow grass • Hindi: Ganja • Manipuri: গন্জা Ganja • Marathi: Ganja • Tamil: Bangi • Malayalam: Kanchavu • Telugu: Ganjari-Chettu • Bengali: Jia
Botanical name: Cannabis sativa Family: Cannabaceae (Marijuana family)
Marijuana, is a coarse, rangy annual that grows 6-12 ft in height. The
leaves are palmately divided into 3-7 narrow, toothed segments, most about
3-6 in long. The stems are rough and scabrous and the inner bark is
fibrous. Hemp is normally a dioecious species, with male and female flowers
on separate plants, but sometimes bisexual plants occur. The female flowers
are in greenish leafy spikes a little less than 1 in long, borne on stem
tips, and the male flowers are yellowish, tiny, and borne in axillary
clusters. The flowers are inconspicuous and without scent; they are
pollinated not by insects, but by the wind. The fruit is an achene, which
is a hard, one-seeded fruit that remains closed at maturity. The
subspecies, indica, has narrower leaves and generally grows taller than the
nominate race. There is only one species of Cannabis, but numerous forms
have been selected for various purposes. The hemp plant is not particularly
attractive and has no ornamental qualities. The tough fiber of the plant,
cultivated as hemp, has numerous textile uses. Its seed, chiefly used as
caged-bird feed, is a valuable source of protein, energy, and psychoactive
and physiologically active chemical compounds known as cannabinoids that
are consumed for recreational, medicinal, and spiritual purposes. When so
used, preparations of flowers and leaves, sometimes called marijuana, and
preparations derived from resinous extract, sometimes called hashish, are
usually consumed by inhaling a vapor released by smoking or heating, or by
oral ingestion. Historically, tinctures, teas, and ointments were also
common preparations.
Identification credit: R.K. Nimai Singh
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