Sativa

Sativa, Latin botanical adjective meaning cultivated, used to designate seed-grown domestic crops such as, for example:

• Avena sativa, the common oat
• Oryza sativa, rice
• Cannabis sativa, hemp
• Medicago sativa, alfalfa

Sativa ends in -a, because it is the feminine form of the adjective, but masculine (-us) and neuter (-um) endings are used to agree with the gender of the nouns they modify, for example, Crocus sativus – Saffron (masculine) and Pisum sativum– Pea (neuter).

• Sativa is sometimes used as a noun to designate high potency strains of hemp (marijuana).

See also:

• Sativa Rose (born 1984), an award-winning pornographic actress
• 8 Foot Sativa, a New Zealand-based metal band

Sativa is derived from the Latin satum, which is the supine of the verb serō meaning to sow. serō itself comes from the Proto-Indo-European language *seh₁, which gave also English sow and German sähen. The English word 'season' derives also from satum, as 'appropriate time for sowing', through the old French 'saison'.