The history of Purple Haze

Timeline

1. 1960sHaze takes root in Santa Cruz, California, with genetics from Colombia, Mexico, Thailand and South India, according to Leafly.⁶
2. Late 1960s–1970sWeedmaps places Purple Haze in the California Haze scene of these years; High Times lists the breeder as unconfirmed.^1,3
3. Late 1970sDJ Short begins breeding Blueberry, which Leafly’s description says he made from Purple Thai and Thai; Purple Thai is the parent most listings give Purple Haze besides Haze.^2,7
4. 2015–2023The 80 dated Purple Haze flower tests in our dataset fall in these years; 81 of all 116 tests come from Nevada.⁸
5. 2020The busiest year in our lab data: 35 tests, with a median total THC of 24.61%.⁸
6. Feb 2026Leafly’s list of the best-selling strains of 2025 leaves Purple Haze out of its national top eight.⁹
7. Aug 2026High Times’ Purple Haze strain profile calls the name “a banner flown by several genetically distinct seed lines”.¹
8. Sep 2026The Marijuana Herald’s list of the top-selling strain in each of the 23 adult-use states does not include Purple Haze.¹⁰
9. Oct 2026SeedFinder lists 11 breeders’ versions of Purple Haze and 54 strains bred directly from it.^5,11
10. Oct 4, 2026Weedmaps shows Purple Haze flower at 93 store listings in 11 of 27 US markets, 35 of them near Los Angeles.¹²

A name more than a single plant

The name is the constant. High Times calls Purple Haze “a cultivar name and a banner flown by several genetically distinct seed lines”, and SeedFinder lists 11 breeders’ versions, from feminized Purple Thai × Haze lines (ILGM, Zamnesia) to G13 Labs’ Afghani × Haze and ACE Seeds’ four-way tropical sativa.^{1,5,13,14,15,16} SeedFinder’s entry for the legendary original calls it “an old myth” and points to the purple hazes now sold by different breeders.⁴

What the databases single out is color and lift: Leafly describes vibrant hues of lavender and rates the strain energizing, and Weedmaps says its deep green flowers can flash purple and violet.^2,3 It has also become breeding stock: SeedFinder counts 54 direct hybrids, and Leafly lists Purple Panty Dropper, from Humboldt Seed Company, and Cherry Haze among its offspring.^11,17,18

The name

Accounts of where the name comes from differ: AllBud says the strain was named after Jimi Hendrix’s 1967 song of the same name, Leafly says the song popularized it, and High Times notes that a clean breeder-to-release paper trail has never emerged.^1,2,19

The disputed parts of the story

• Parents: Purple Thai × Haze in most listings; “believed to be” Original Haze × Purple Thai for United Cannabis Seeds; a purple Haze phenotype for SeedFinder’s legendary entry and Growers Choice; Afghani × Haze for G13 Labs; four tropical sativas for ACE Seeds (see genetics).^{2,4,15,16,20,21}
• Breeder: unconfirmed, according to High Times; AllBud names none.^1,19
• Place and era: only Weedmaps gives one, the California Haze scene of the late 1960s and 1970s.³
• Flowering: 7–9 weeks on Leafly against 16–20 weeks on Weedmaps, which matches ACE Seeds’ pure-sativa line.^2,3,16
• Type: a sativa on Leafly, 85% sativa on AllBud, a hybrid on Weedmaps.^2,3,19