A fossilized leaf imprint found near Eisleben, Germany may be 56 million years old, doubling the previously accepted timeline for the Cannabis genus and raising new questions about where the plant actually came from. Researchers say further investigation is underway. The implications are enormous either way.
It had been sitting in a museum drawer for nearly 140 years.
First described in 1883 by the scientist Paul Friedrich as Cannabis oligocaenica, a fossilized leaf imprint in the collection of Berlin’s Museum für Naturkunde had not been analyzed in detail until now. When researchers recently took a closer look, they realized they might be sitting on one of the most significant botanical discoveries in recent memory.
The fossil, a leaf impression in fossilized mud found near Eisleben in Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt region, has been dated to the Lower Eocene, approximately 56 to 48 million years ago. If the identification holds up, it would make this specimen by far the oldest known cannabis fossil ever found, doubling the previously accepted timeline for the entire Cannabis genus and raising fundamental questions about where the plant actually originated.
The museum is careful about the framing. “Further investigations are now underway to determine whether this is indeed by far the oldest known specimen of the Cannabis genus,” the institution said in an April 17, 2026 press release. This is a preliminary finding, not a confirmed classification. But the early evidence is striking enough that scientists are taking it very seriously.
Photo: Ludwig Luthardt/Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
What makes this fossil significant
Until now, the oldest known cannabis evidence came from two sources. Pollen samples from the Miocene epoch dated cannabis to roughly 20 million years ago. Molecular dating of genetic material from living cannabis plants suggested the genus could be as much as 28 million years old. Both figures pointed to an origin …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
