White Widow: Cultivar Profile With Sources, Lineage Claims and Lab Data Limits

White Widow is a cannabis cultivar (commonly called a strain) with a long public history. This page keeps apart the name, the stories about who bred it, laboratory measurements and research. It is information only. Evidence labels used here: "promising but limited" means a small positive study; "Proper evidence not found" means we looked and found nothing usable.

Identity and breeder attribution

White Widow is described as Netherlands-bred.[1] An encyclopedia entry says it was created and developed by Scott Blakey (known as Shantibaba) while he worked at the Green House Seed Company, and that the strain won a Cannabis Cup in 1995.[1] The same entry says the original White Widow was renamed Black Widow when Blakey moved his genetics to another seed company.[1]

That attribution is contested. A page from the Green House Seeds company itself carries a quote from a person named Arjan, who says a different breeder, Ingemar (De Sjamaan), developed the plant in 1987 under the name Arnhem's Wonder, and that Arjan bought a male and female in 1992 and only crossed them in 1994.[2] We therefore record the breeder as disputed. See lineage claims and breeder attribution. A seed-variety database lists 79 entries under the White Widow name,[2] so a plant sold under the name may come from many sources. See also cultivar names, aliases and conflicts.

Reported lineage

Both the encyclopedia entry and the Green House Seeds page report a Brazilian sativa and a South Indian indica as the parents.[1][2] Both are descriptions rather than verified records, so we label the lineage "reported." A research genome assembly named White Widow B exists and is described as a Type I cultivar,[3] but that assembly says nothing about whether a plant sold under the name is the same plant.

Classification

Labels differ. The encyclopedia calls it a balanced hybrid.[1] The seed company page lists it as mostly indica.[2] A Thai laboratory study listed its sample as "C. indica" and stressed that strain names are commercial names.[4] In user-review data from one large strain website, White Widow was among the ten most-reviewed strains as of December 2023.[5] That shows popularity, not composition. See what hybrid means and why labels do not predict effects.

Aroma and constituents

One peer-reviewed study measured terpenes in samples supplied under the name White Widow by a South Korean company, with the authors stating the plants were government-supervised hybrid cannabis.[6] Using headspace gas chromatography with mass spectrometry, they reported these amounts for the flower sample, in micrograms per gram, as a value plus or minus the reported spread:[6]

This is a single sample, not a dataset, and the paper gives no test date. The authors note that leaf and flower terpene makeup differed substantially even within White Widow.[6] Beta-caryophyllene was the most abundant of the terpenes they quantified in the White Widow flower.[6] These numbers cannot be used as a standard. See terpenes in cannabis.

Potency

We did not find flower batch data with a sample ID, laboratory, test date and method. A company page lists cannabinoid percentages for its version, but gives none of those details, so we do not repeat them. The only measured figures we found are for an oil: in a Brazilian clinical trial, the cannabis oil made from a plant called White Widow was reported to contain 24.44 mg/mL THC and 0.51 mg/mL CBD.[7] That is one oil preparation, not flower, and the authors did not analyze its terpenes.[7] Composition varies; see how to read a cannabis COA.

Reported experiences

The seed company describes a relaxing feel that turns into a bursting sativa high.[2] That is a seller-side description and anecdote, not research.

Research

Evidence level: promising but limited, for one use, in one oil. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial gave 17 women with fibromyalgia the White Widow-labeled THC-rich oil or a placebo for eight weeks.[7] Scores on the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire fell more in the cannabis group than in the placebo group, with gains in "feel good," pain, ability to do work and fatigue, while the placebo group improved on depression, and the authors reported no intolerable adverse effects.[7] The authors say longer studies are needed.[7] The oil was a non-standardized preparation, so these results cannot be transferred to flower, other oils or other products. For the wider picture see cannabis for chronic pain.

Safety

THC can impair thinking, memory and body movement, and anxiety or panic are more common when a product is strong.[8] Read impairment and driving and when to seek urgent help.