Cultivar

Cultivar refers to any specific cultivated variety of cannabis that has been selectively bred and stabilized to express a certain desired combination of distinctive growth structure, aroma, flavor, effects, cannabinoid profile, terpene profile, or other identifying traits.

New cultivars, commonly misnamed as strains, are bred into existence by master cannabis breeders through meticulous cross-breeding over multiple generations to combine and stabilize the expression of advantageous traits from different parent plant lineages.

The naming of popular cultivars like Blue Dream, Granddaddy Purple, and Sour Diesel allows underground growers and eventual legal markets to achieve some degree of product consistency so that consumers can reasonably expect certain traits when seeking out their desired medicine and effects. However, every individual's endocannabinoid system uniquely reacts to different cultivars, so some experimentation is required to find your particular best match.