Cultivar

Cultivar (portmanteau of "cultivated variety") is the basic classification category for cultivated plants under the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP). Article 2.3 of the ICNCP defines a cultivar as "an assemblage of plants that (a) has been selected for a particular character or combination of characters, (b) is distinct, uniform, and stable in these characters, and (c) when propagated by appropriate means, retains those characters" (Brickell et al. 2016). Cultivar epithets appear in single quotation marks and are non-italicized, e.g., Cannabis sativa 'Carmagnola'. Most cannabis "strains" fail ICNCP criteria for distinctness, uniformity, and stability because of widespread polyhybridization, unverified pedigrees, and seed-line segregation (Pollio 2016; Small 2015; Reimann-Philipp et al. 2019). Pollio (2016) recommends reserving cultivar (with single quotes) for properly registered varieties and "strain" (without quotes) for vernacular names lacking ICNCP compliance. Registration is coordinated by International Cultivar Registration Authorities. → See also: Strain (Industry/Slang), Chemovar, IBL.