Ruderalis is a name for wild, weedy cannabis, first described in 1924 from plants growing near Saratov in Russia. Most botanists today regard Cannabis ruderalis as a wild form of Cannabis sativa rather than a separate species. The name is best known for the autoflowering trait: plants that flower with age rather than when the days get shorter.
Key facts
- First described
- 1924, by the Russian botanist D. E. Janischevsky, from wild plants near Saratov
- Botanical status
- Usually regarded as wild-type Cannabis sativa; Vavilov's older name, var. spontanea (1922), describes the same population
- Best-known trait
- Day-neutral ("autoflowering") flowering, which does not depend on shorter days
- Genetics
- At least two separate regions behind autoflowering mapped so far: Autoflower1 (2022) and Autoflower2 (2024)
- UK status
- Like all cannabis, a Class B drug; growing it needs a Home Office licence (as of October 2026)
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What does ruderalis mean?
A ruderal plant is one that colonises disturbed ground such as roadsides, field edges and waste land. The Russian botanist D. E. Janischevsky used the name Cannabis ruderalis in 1924 for wild cannabis growing near Saratov. Two years earlier, Nikolai Vavilov had named plants from the same wild population Cannabis sativa var. spontanea (McPartland and Small, 2020). "Ruderalis" stuck in everyday use anyway.
Is Cannabis ruderalis a separate species?
Mostly not. All cannabis plants can interbreed, and many botanists regard the genus as a single species, Cannabis sativa. In this view, ruderalis is the wild-type form of the plant, alongside domesticated fibre and seed varieties (McPartland and Small, 2020). A review of cannabis systematics recognises two subspecies, C. sativa subsp. sativa and C. sativa subsp. indica, without a separate ruderalis species (McPartland, 2018).
In practice, sellers use "ruderalis" for plants with one or more of three traits: a wild-looking appearance, small size, or early, day-neutral flowering.
What is the difference between ruderalis, sativa and indica?
| Ruderalis | Sativa | Indica | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Everyday meaning | Small, wild-looking or autoflowering plants | Tall, narrow-leaved plants | Short, broad-leaved plants |
| Flowering | Often by age (day-neutral) | Triggered by shorter days | Triggered by shorter days |
| Botanical view | Wild-type C. sativa | C. sativa subsp. sativa (hemp) or drug-type indica variety | C. sativa subsp. indica |
| Predicts THC or CBD content? | No | No | No |
Read more in our guides to Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica.
What is autoflowering, and where does it come from?
Most cannabis is a short-day plant: it stays leafy through early summer and flowers once the nights are long enough. Photoperiod-insensitive plants, called autoflowers, flower when they reach a certain age, whatever the day length. Growers often trace the trait to ruderalis plants from northern latitudes.
Genetic studies show it is not one gene from one source:
- In 2022, researchers mapped a locus called Autoflower1. Breeders had long described autoflowering as a simple recessive trait (Toth et al., 2022).
- In 2024, a second locus, Autoflower2, was linked to a flowering-time gene called CsFT1. The authors concluded that at least two independent loci control day-neutral flowering in cannabis (Dowling et al., 2024).
Why do breeders use ruderalis genetics?
An autoflowering plant does not need longer nights to flower, so it can finish in a short northern summer. Flowering time also affects the yield and quality of hemp grain, fibre and cannabinoids, which is why hemp breeders map these traits (Toth et al., 2022). Breeders cross the autoflowering trait into other lines to combine a predictable flowering time with the traits they want. Our guide How is hemp grown? explains how day length shapes the hemp season.
Does ruderalis get you high?
That depends on how much THC a plant contains, not on its name. THC levels vary widely between wild plants and modern autoflowering hybrids, some of which are bred for high THC. Only a laboratory test shows the actual content. For the compounds that cause a high, see which cannabinoids are psychoactive and our guide to THC.
The law does not depend on the name either. In the UK, cannabis is a Class B drug and it is an offence to grow any plant of the genus Cannabis without a Home Office licence (Home Office, 2024).
From our production
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Frequently asked questions
What is Cannabis ruderalis?
It is a name for wild, weedy cannabis, first described in 1924 from plants near Saratov in Russia. Most botanists regard it as wild Cannabis sativa rather than a separate species. The name is now mostly linked to autoflowering plants.
What does ruderalis mean?
A ruderal plant grows on disturbed ground such as roadsides and waste land. The name describes where the wild plants were found, not a particular chemistry.
What is the difference between sativa, indica and ruderalis?
As everyday labels, sativa and indica describe tall or short drug-type plants, and ruderalis describes small wild or autoflowering plants. Botanically they all belong to Cannabis sativa, and crossbreeding has made the labels unreliable.
Are all autoflowering plants ruderalis?
Not exactly. Autoflowering is a trait, not a species. Researchers have mapped at least two separate genetic regions behind it, Autoflower1 and Autoflower2.
What are the effects of ruderalis?
The name says nothing about effects. Whether a plant intoxicates depends on its THC content, which varies widely between wild plants and modern hybrids and has to be measured.
Related guides
This article is general information about cannabis botany. It is not a growing guide or legal advice. Formula Swiss CBD oils are cosmetic products for use on the skin. See our full disclaimer.
Last reviewed:
Sources
- McPartland JM, Small E. A classification of endangered high-THC cannabis (Cannabis sativa subsp. indica) domesticates and their wild relatives. PhytoKeys 2020. doi:10.3897/phytokeys.144.46700
- McPartland JM. Cannabis systematics at the levels of family, genus, and species. Cannabis Cannabinoid Res 2018;3(1):203–212.
- Toth JA, Stack GM, Carlson CH, Smart LB. Identification and mapping of major-effect flowering time loci Autoflower1 and Early1 in Cannabis sativa L. Front Plant Sci 2022;13:991680.
- Dowling CA, Shi J, Toth JA, et al. A FLOWERING LOCUS T ortholog is associated with photoperiod-insensitive flowering in hemp (Cannabis sativa L.). Plant J 2024.
- Home Office. Drug licensing factsheet: cannabis, CBD and other cannabinoids. Updated 3 October 2024.
