Everything You Need to Know About the White Widow Weed Strain

Can’t tell the difference between Blue Dream and Purple Urkle? Wondering what exactly’s in the Girl Scout Cookies you just smoked? We've created detailed profiles for each of the most popular, sought-after weed strains, in order to help cannabis users everywhere understand the different plants they’re smoking, eating, or otherwise consuming. Up next: White Widow.
 

A Brazilian sativa combined with a special indica-dominant hybrid sourced in Kerala, India
 

Though some dispute this, most ascribe the Widow to the legendary breeder Shantibaba, who was one of the founders of Green House Seed Company. The story goes that Shantibaba sourced the mother plant while on vacation in Brazil, and the father from a single source in India, though the actual breeding work was done in Amsterdam in the early 1990s.

Medium (15%-20%)
 

Bred to maximize the body effects and relaxation of an indica while retaining the sativa's euphoric mental character, Widow conveys a very balanced overall effect, which is social and happy. That said, it typically falls short of the full-on invigoration traditionally found in a pure sativa.

Though becoming less and less common everywhere but Amsterdam, White Widow is a strain that's been knocked off a thousand times for the better part of 20 years, so it’s nearly impossible to describe what a user will see at this point. There are at least 10 versions of it that are (or were) commercially available in large quantities from Dutch seed banks, with each of those seeds capable of producing a wide variety of plants. Sooo... your guess is as good as ours! White Widow and AK-47 were probably the go-to names that your high school drug dealer used to hike up the price... and we hate to break it to you, but you probably got swindled.

White Widow has a complex aroma, with hints of sandalwood and tropical fruit, but normally the flavor is less interesting, with much of the fruitiness being washed away by the thick, hashy smoke.

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Ry Prichard is a Denver-based cannabis photographer and researcher who smells strongly of the strain you just read about at least twice a week. Follow him deep into the weed jungles of Colorado @cannabisencyclo.