Sativa is the tall, slender cannabis plant type, with roots in Eastern Asia. It carries a reputation as the energizing one, the counterpart to calming indica. The name is a botanical term for the plant, though, and the Ontario Cannabis Store cautions that plant type may not be the most reliable guide to how a product will feel.

What Sativa Means

Cannabis sativa is one of the two most common cannabis plant types. The other is Cannabis indica; a third, Cannabis ruderalis, is short and rugged and used mostly by breeders, and hybrids are crosses of two or more strains. Indica and sativa are botanical names for the structure of each plant.

Sativa originated in Eastern Asia. It can grow up to 25 feet tall and is typically taller and more slender than indica, with long, serrated, light green leaves. Indica, from the Hindu Kush, is shorter and bushier, with dark green leaves.

The Sativa Reputation

The traditional shorthand is that sativa energizes while indica calms. That idea dates from when the two types were thought to produce distinct effects. With growers breeding ever more hybrids and research moving on, the Ontario Cannabis Store describes the classification as becoming less relevant or helpful, and notes that consumers are finding plant type may not be the most reliable indicator of potential effects.

Read a sativa label as a note on the plant's lineage rather than a guarantee of a bright, busy afternoon.

Better Guides Than the Label

Cannabinoids. Check how much THC and CBD a product contains. Minor cannabinoids such as CBG and CBN turn up too, though how they work needs more study.

Terpenes. The fragrant oils behind a strain's aroma and taste; the five most common in cannabis are beta-caryophyllene, limonene, myrcene, pinene and linalool. Research suggests individual terpenes may play a large role in the potential effects. The "entourage effect", the idea that terpenes and cannabinoids act together, remains a theory.

Method and amount. How you consume cannabis and how much you take both change the experience, and so does your own tolerance.

Your body and history. Genetics, tolerance and other individual factors shape the effect. A simple log of what you took and how it felt beats any label.