Taxonomic Proposal

I've noticed that there seems to be a lack of a scientific designation for the Cannabis sativa cultivars that have higher percentages of CBD to THC by a sizable margin. Considering the numbers of patients looking for only high CBD/low THC strains that are having difficulties finding non-recreational medicine it would seem that there is a legitimate need for such a designation.

My proposal is that these newer cultivars displaying CBD percentages of 6-17% and THC percentages of .01-2% be designated "Cannabis sativa var. alepsia" where Alepsia is the designation differing it from traditional cultivars:

• Sativas - var. sativa,
• Indicas - var. indica, &
• Hemp - var. ruderalis.

I used the name Alepsia because it is already being used to designate high CBD oils. By collectively calling all the cultivars that are used to create these oils by the same name it would simplify the search for these strains when purchasing seeds/clones or creating new "Alepsia" strains for use.

Feel free to comment, make corrections and (because its going to happen anyways) rant about how giving these cultivars a scientific designation will prevent you from legalizing recreational pot (screw the epileptic kids, right?).

That's an interesting first post.
I don't see why it shouldn't happen. But what's the history of this name beyond "high CBD oils"? That is, what is the etymology?

heckler73 said:

That's an interesting first post.
I don't see why it shouldn't happen. But what's the history of this name beyond "high CBD oils"? That is, what is the etymology?

Click to expand...

The term "Alepsia" was already in use by Utah State Rep. Gage Froerer, although not trademarked in any way, and used by the creators of the Charlotte's Web strain, with the same described properties, and used by a few other epilepsy/seizure related groups. So, it seamed appropriate to assign it this name. For this reason I can't say for sure what its original intended etymology was.

I believe it might be associated with Catalepsy, a nervous condition characterized by muscular rigidity of posture regardless of external stimuli, with the desired connotation being that "Alepsy" is neither rigidity nor flexibility, which is a fair description of seizure patients in flux.


If we assume the word Catalepsy is the root with the Greek prefix "kata-, combining form of katá, meaning down," being the opposite of the Greek prefix "ana-, combining form of aná, meaning up," then just "Alepsy" would be an intermediate form of neither up nor down which agrees with the above description of seizure patients in flux.

(Between you and I, I saw the word being used and realized it wasn't being used for anything else. As a plant biologist, I was more worried about using the proper Taxonomic ranking terms correctly than I was with etymology!)

This revision is probably "more" accurate.

I'm going to avoid going into a convoluted taxonomy discussion in regards to historical naming. I'll just say that I believe taxonomists have repeatedly called the common strains the public labels:

• "Sativas" as being subspecies indica,
• "hemp" as being subspecies sativa, &
• "landraces" as being a sliver of wild plants that don't really fit anywhere else.

They do this, with complete disregard for public use, because some other taxonomist did something "similar" in the past. It's a poor excuse at best.

This revision is probably "more" accurate and removes nonessential subspecies designations. Autos and Hybrida are based on Latin words which fit classical etymology techniques.