Ruderalis: The overlooked cannabis species

Originally growing in the steppes of Central Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe, cannabis ruderalis is the least domesticated type of marijuana there is, accurately representing the term “weed” in all ways imaginable. This species of cannabis can be found flourishing near roads and fields, being extremely resistant to harsh weather conditions and known to thrive even in the poorest of soils. Compared to its closer relatives sativa and indica, cannabis ruderalis also tends to be much smaller in size, the average ruderalis plant measuring between approximately 30.5 cm to 76.2 cm, while typically having lower THC levels than its more popular counterparts.

Despite the perceived inferiorities of ruderal varieties, this cannabis species has two natural advantages over sativa and indica. Unlike its relatives, cannabis ruderalis doesn’t require a lot of light exposure to flower, as Elmira Hadzhykhanova from Honest Marijuana explains.

“One of the most unique and valuable traits of the Cannabis ruderalis plant is that it doesn’t depend on light exposure to flower. Of course, ruderalis needs light to grow — as all plants do — but this strain doesn’t depend on the ratio of light to dark hours (the photoperiod) to switch from vegetative growth to flowering growth. Instead, the switch depends on age (i.e., number of days). Scientists call this trait auto flowering. What that means for the average grower — or the person who stumbles upon ruderalis in the wild — is that auto flowering strains don’t require varying the amount of light the plant gets the way you do with photoperiodic strains”.

Not only is cannabis ruderalis as dependent on light as the two dominant cannabis species, but the growing cycle of ruderal varieties is significantly accelerated. If indica and sativa growing cycles can generally take up to six months, the ruderalis plant produces flowers in approximately fourteen weeks, although buds can make their appearance even sooner.

Judging from the rougher character of this wild cannabis variety and its unwanted presence on crop fields in the East, most cannabis entrepreneurs would probably quickly dismiss the idea of basing their business model on ruderal cannabis. On second thought, cannabis ruderalis could be a practical strategy for producing high quality medical cannabis products for lower prices. Despite not possessing high amounts of THC, Ruderalis is still rich in CBD and could represent a cheaper and faster alternative of producing CBD-based medication such as seizure treatments and pain-relieving tinctures in a record amount of time. The low maintenance requirements of the plant are also something to consider, as all the highly performant equipment required for the cultivation of “traditional” cannabis varieties involves heavy costs which not every newcomer to the industry can afford - cannabis ruderalis could create room for a temporary compromise in terms of growing equipment which would otherwise not be possible in the context of indica and sativa while also potentially facilitating the accumulation of a hefty bankroll for cross-breeding experimentation with the two dominant cannabis species and, if considered necessary, switching from cannabis ruderalis crops to standard indica and sativa ones.

BY DANIEL CIUREA

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