Cannabaceae

Palmately compound or simple leaves on herbs and trees; tiny, wind-pollinated, unisexual flowers on separate male and female plants cluster into loose panicles or tight cone-like spikes, without showy petals.

Female flower clusters in Cannabis are coated in resin-secreting glandular hairs that produce the plant's psychoactive and aromatic compounds, while unrelated genera in this family instead just yield a small dry hackberry-type fruit.

To check whether a plant belongs to Cannabaceae, compare the leaf arrangement, leaf type, flower symmetry, fruit type, and one distinctive marker together. A single feature can mislead; the family pattern is the combination.