WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Occasional and scattered throughout the UK as a casual. Mainly around cities. It often escapes into the wild by bird seed, angling and dumped. Habitat includes: tips, wasteland, coasts, roadside verges, spoil heaps etc. Growing habit: Dioecious annual. Flowers: July to September. Height: Up to 2.5 m. It has been grown in gardens in Britain since at least 1304 and was cultivated up until the 17th and 18th centuries as a fibre crop. It has been known in the wild since at least 1863. It is also a constituent of bird-seed mixtures, is used as bait by anglers and is cultivated, illegally and in small quantities, as a drug plant. Native to South West and Central Asia. Other names include: Cannabis, Marajuana, Wacky Backy, Grass, Herb.