Is Grape Ape indica or sativa? Its genetics and family tree

The three parents

Mendocino Purps, also called Mendo Purps or The Purps, is a hybrid from Mendocino County in Northern California. It began as a clone-only plant, took one of the top-ten slots in High Times’ Strains of the Year in 2007, and BC Bud Depot later bred a stable seed version; Leafly’s page lists Granddaddy Purple and Grape Ape as its children.¹¹ Leafly’s history of the Purps family traces it to Purple Kush in the 1990s Northern California scene, with Purple Urkle and Lavender as its phenotypes.⁶

Skunk #1 is a hybrid bred by Sacred Seed Co. in the late 1970s from Afghani, Acapulco Gold and Colombian Gold, and later developed by Sensi Seeds and others.¹² Afghani is an indica landrace from Afghanistan that breeders value for the heavy resin production it passes on.¹³

Grape Ape and Granddaddy Purple: cousins or the same?

The confusion has a cause. Leafly’s Granddaddy Purple page calls GDP "a famous indica cross of Mendo Purps, Skunk, and Afghanistan", the same three parents it gives Grape Ape, and adds that "other people claim it is Big Bud x Purple Urkle".^1,15 Weedmaps lists GDP as Purple Urkle × Big Bud, popularized in Northern California by Ken Estes in 2003.¹⁶ Either way the two share Mendocino Purps ancestry, since Purple Urkle is believed to be a Mendocino Purps phenotype, and Leafly users report the same top effects and a grape-led flavor for both.^1,15,17 Our comparison sets them side by side: Grape Ape vs Granddaddy Purple.

How indica is it?

Leafly files Grape Ape as an indica and describes it as "a mostly indica strain"; Weedmaps calls it an indica; AllBud labels it an indica-dominant hybrid at 90% indica and 10% sativa, the same split Royal Queen Seeds gives its seed line; SeedFinder files Apothecary Genetics’ and Barney’s Farm’s versions as mostly indica, and Barney’s own text calls its version a pure indica.^1,2,3,4,5,7 Of the three reported parents, only Afghani is an indica; Leafly files Mendocino Purps and Skunk #1 as hybrids.^11,12,13

Apothecary’s strain and the seed versions

Apothecary Genetics, founded by Bret Bogue, lists Grape Ape among its strains; Leafly credits both Apothecary Genetics and Barney’s Farm with propagating it, and Royal Queen Seeds says Barney’s Farm later "tried their hand at improving these genetics".^1,18,19 SeedFinder lists eight breeders’ versions of the name: Royal Queen Seeds, 420 Seeds, ApeOrigin, Apothecary Genetics, Barney’s Farm, Blimburn, Plantation Premium Seeds and United Cannabis Seeds.²⁰

The versions are not identical. Royal Queen Seeds’ feminized line is Afghani × Mendocino Purps × Skunk #1 at 90% indica; Barney’s Farm’s is listed as Granddaddy Grape × Skunk #1; Apothecary’s own breeder text gives Mendo Purps × Skunk × Afghani.^4,5,7

What our lab data adds

In state lab records the name is common on concentrates. Besides the 202 flower tests we use, 94 concentrate and 40 shake or trim results matched the name strictly, and of the 74 results excluded as near-miss names (16 of them flower), the most frequent were "SVC Grape Ape Distillate" (13) and the two-strain name "Grape Ape/Larry OG" (7).²¹

None of this tests parentage: matching is by label text, and the same name from different growers can be different genetics.²¹