Cannabis is one of the most versatile genera in terms of plant use and has been exploited by humans for millennia. Nowadays, Cannabis is the centre of many scientific studies, most of them focusing on chemical composition and medicinal values. While new and varied applications are continuously being developed, the knowledge surrounding less common use of the plant is slowly disappearing. We have analysed diversity of global data of Cannabis traditional uses, to investigate if certain plant parts are significantly associated with particular Cannabis use. We wanted to uncover potential associations between the plant parts used for the treatment of different body systems and ailments. We have analysed the extensive database of Cannabis traditional uses (the CANNUSE). This database contains 2330 data entries of Cannabis ethnobotanical uses from over 40 countries across the world. The dataset was divided into five general groups based on the type of use: medicinal, alimentary, psychoactive, fibre and other uses. Given the abundance of human medicinal uses, detailed analysis was done on the subset of 1167 data entries. We analysed the relationship between 16 body system categories and ailments treated with Cannabis plant parts. We used a Pearson's chi-square and Fisher's exact test, to determine which Cannabis parts are characteristic of treatment for specific ailments. In this dataset, the majority of reports were represented by medicinal (75.41%), followed by psychoactive (8.35%) and alimentary (7.29%) use. The most commonly used plant parts were leaf (50.51%), seed (15.38%) and inflorescence (11.35%). We found that different Cannabis plant parts were significantly associated with different uses; the leaf was typically used for medicinal, seed for alimentary and inflorescence for psychoactive use. Regarding the human medicinal uses, most common were reports for treatments of the digestive system and nutritional disorders (17.66%), nervous system and mental disorders (16.24%), followed by pain and inflammations (12.21%). We found a significant relationship between the use of certain Cannabis parts and treatment of ailments and body systems categories; leaf was significantly associated with treatment of two categories: skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders and circulatory system and blood disorders; seed use was associated with musculoskeletal system disorders and traumas; while inflorescence use shows a statistical support for treatment of nervous system and mental disorders. Several pharmaceutical companies are intensely working on developing new drugs with isolated chemical compounds or crude extracts, almost exclusively from Cannabis inflorescences. However, our review revealed that use of leaf or seed in traditional medicine is often more important than use of inflorescence for the treatment of certain ailments. A review of traditional medicine provides a body of knowledge and a an initial pathway to identify landraces and plant parts that could have an important role in future medicinal research. We are confident that traditional medicine still has a large potential for modern medicine. As more information on Cannabis diversity (genetics, biochemistry, and clinical studies) becomes available, ethnobotanical data are poised to be of much greater significance.

Sex determination and sex chromosomes have been extensively studied due to their importance in evolutionary biology. Species of dioecious plants, which may have sex chromosomes, offer us unique insights into the history of this phenomenon across the Tree of Life. Here, we present Sex‐chrom: a database on plant sex chromosomes (www.sexchrom.csic.es), which aims to provide an easily accessible and organized information source for scientists and a general audience interested in this field. Basic data such as complete taxonomic classification of the species, chromosome number, genome size (2C), ploidy level, sex determination mechanism, presence of homomorphic or heteromorphic sex chromosomes and their corresponding sources are easily available for 178 species of 84 genera and 65 families. Besides, the database contains specific sections for ten selected model systems in plant sex chromosome research such as Silene latifolia and Rumex acetosa. In these sections, more detailed information is also available, including data on sex‐linked genes, transposable elements or tandemly repeated DNA present in sex chromosomes. Data have been extracted from 431 sources published between 1919 and 2020.

Cannabis is one of the most versatile genera in terms of plant uses and has been exploited by humans for millennia due to its medicinal properties, strong fibres, nutritious seeds and psychoactive resin. Nowadays, Cannabis is the centre of many scientific studies, which mainly focus on its chemical composition and medicinal properties. Unfortunately, while new applications of this plant are continuously being developed, some of its traditional uses are becoming rare and even disappearing altogether. Information on traditional uses of Cannabis is vast, but it is scattered across many publication sources in different formats, so synthesis and standardization of these data are increasingly important. The CANNUSE database provides an organized information source for scientists and general public interested in different aspects of Cannabis use. It contains over 2300 entries from 649 publications related to medicinal, alimentary, fibre and other uses from different geographical areas and cultures around the world. We believe this database will serve as a starting point for new research and development strategies based on the traditional knowledge. Database URL:http://cannusedb.csic.es

Cannabis sativa has been used for millennia in traditional medicine for ritual purposes and for the production of food and fibres, thus, providing important and versatile services to humans. The species, which currently has a worldwide distribution, strikes out for displaying a huge morphological and chemical diversity. Differences in Cannabis genome size have also been found, suggesting it could be a useful character to differentiate between accessions. We used flow cytometry to investigate the extent of genome size diversity across 483 individuals belonging to 84 accessions, with a wide range of wild/feral, landrace, and cultivated accessions. We also carried out sex determination using the MADC2 marker and investigated the potential of flow cytometry as a method for early sex determination. All individuals were diploid, with genome sizes ranging from 1.810 up to 2.152 pg/2C (1.189-fold variation), apart from a triploid, with 2.884 pg/2C. Our results suggest that the geographical expansion of Cannabis and its domestication had little impact on its overall genome size. We found significant differences between the genome size of male and female individuals. Unfortunately, differences were, however, too small to be discriminated using flow cytometry through the direct processing of combined male and female individuals.

Summary: The iconic, palmately compound leaves of Cannabis have attracted significant attention in the past. However, investigations into the genetic basis of leaf shape or its connections to phytochemical composition have yielded inconclusive results. This is partly due to prominent changes in leaflet number within a single plant during development, which has so far prevented the proper use of common morphometric techniques. Here, we present a new method that overcomes the challenge of nonhomologous landmarks in palmate, pinnate, and lobed leaves, using Cannabis as an example. We model corresponding pseudo‐landmarks for each leaflet as angle‐radius coordinates and model them as a function of leaflet to create continuous polynomial models, bypassing the problems associated with variable number of leaflets between leaves. We analyze 341 leaves from 24 individuals from nine Cannabis accessions. Using 3591 pseudo‐landmarks in modeled leaves, we accurately predict accession identity, leaflet number, and relative node number. Intra‐leaf modeling offers a rapid, cost‐effective means of identifying Cannabis accessions, making it a valuable tool for future taxonomic studies, cultivar recognition, and possibly chemical content analysis and sex identification, in addition to permitting the morphometric analysis of leaves in any species with variable numbers of leaflets or lobes.

Range contraction and habitat fragmentation can cause biodiversity loss by creating conditions that directly or indirectly affect the survival of plant populations. Fragmented habitats can alter pollinator guilds and impact their behavior, which may result in pollen/pollinator limitation and selection for increased selfing as a mechanism for reproductive assurance. We used Salvia brachyodon, a narrowly distributed and endangered sage from eastern Adriatic, to test the consequences of range contraction and habitat fragmentation. Molecular data indicate a severe and relatively recent species range reduction. While one population is reproductively almost completely isolated, moderate gene flow has been detected between the remaining two populations. The high pollen-to-ovule ratio and the results of controlled hand pollination indicate that S. brachyodon has a mixed mating system. Quantitative and qualitative differences in the community and behaviour of flower visitors resulted in limited pollination services in one population where no effective pollinator other than pollen and nectar robbers were observed. In this population, self-pollination predominated over cross-pollination. Various environmental factors, in which plant-pollinator interactions play a pivotal role, have likely created selection pressures that have led to genetic and phenotypic differentiation and different resource allocation strategies among populations.