What 2,220 public cannabis lab reports say about terpenes

Terpenes are the aromatic compounds behind a strain's smell: pepper, citrus, pine, lavender. Menus and labels love to name a "dominant terpene." We did not check those claims. Instead we went to public lab data to see which terpene comes out on top, and how much of it there is.

We took 2,220 flower lab results from Cannlytics' open dataset, gathered through public records requests and certificates of analysis posted online, and pooled them into 544 strain profiles. Each profile is the median of the flower results that matched the strain when we first built its profile. Here is what stood out.

1. Pepper beats musk

Myrcene is often called the most abundant terpene in cannabis. We said it in our own terpene guide too. In this data, it is not the most common leader.

Caryophyllene, the spicy, peppery, woody terpene also found in black pepper and cloves, is the top terpene in 26.6% of strains. Myrcene (earthy, musky, herbal) leads 23.1%, and limonene (citrus, lemon, orange) leads 22.7%. Together those three lead 72.4% of profiles. Only 13 of the 24 terpenes we track top any strain at all.

The gap widens when we keep only strains with 3 or more lab results (225 strains, 1,829 results): caryophyllene leads 34.0%, limonene 27.6% and myrcene 17.1%. Caryophyllene is also the most widespread terpene, listed in 94.9% of profiles.

One thing this data cannot test: myrcene is a monoterpene, a smaller and more volatile molecule than caryophyllene, a sesquiterpene. Drying, curing and storage could shift the balance before a sample ever reaches the lab.

2. The top terpene is often a small number

The top terpene in a profile sits at a median of 0.44% of flower weight. It clears 0.5% (5.0 mg per gram) in only 40.8% of strains. In the other 59.2%, the top terpene in the lab data is at or below that line. Just 5.5% of strains have a top terpene at 1% or more.

Being on top rarely means most of the aroma, either. The top terpene typically holds 32.5% of a strain's terpene total. The rest is spread across a supporting cast.

3. Total terpenes: 1.39%

The median strain's listed terpenes add up to 1.39% of flower weight, or 13.9 mg per gram. The middle half of strains fall between 1.05% and 1.83%. 21.9% of strains come in under 1%, and 16.7% reach 2% or more. Treat these totals as a floor: they count only the terpenes we track, and labs measure a few more.

4. The usual trio, and a challenger

Among the 537 profiles that list at least 3 terpenes, the most common top three is caryophyllene, limonene and myrcene: 75 strains, or 14.0%. Next come caryophyllene, limonene and linalool (9.1%), then caryophyllene, myrcene and pinene (7.4%). We counted 75 different top-three sets, but the 5 most common cover 43.4% of profiles, and caryophyllene is in all 5.

Among strains with 3 or more lab results, the order flips: caryophyllene, limonene and linalool is the most common top three (15.6%), just ahead of caryophyllene, limonene and myrcene (13.4%). Caryophyllene is still in all 5 of the most common sets.

5. The surprise: always there, rarely in charge

Two terpenes show up in most strains yet almost never lead.

Humulene (hoppy, earthy, woody, the aroma of hops) is listed in 76.1% of profiles and leads none. Linalool (floral, lavender, sweet) is listed in 73.2% and leads 0.8%. Where either one appears, it typically sits at 26% of the leading terpene's level.

Terpinolene is the mirror image. Floral, herbal and piney, it is listed in only 68 strains, but it leads 46 of them.

What this means when you read a label

In the lab data, the top terpene tells you what comes first, not how much is there. Look for the percentage and the total, then let your nose decide. WeedCentral shows a strain's lab terpene profile on its page when one exists, along with the source.

How we did this

• Source. Cannlytics cannabis_results: public cannabis lab results gathered through public records requests and certificates of analysis posted online (huggingface.co/datasets/cannlytics/cannabis_results). Data: Cannlytics, CC-BY 4.0 (license). We changed the data: we matched lab product names to strain names and pooled results into per-strain medians. Cannlytics has not reviewed or endorsed this analysis.
• n. 2,220 flower lab results, pooled into 544 strain profiles, from the 10 states in the dataset that report per-terpene panels (CA, CO, FL, HI, MA, MD, NV, NY, OR, UT), though most profiles predate the CO, NY and UT additions (see Method). Concentrates and vapes are excluded.
• Date range. The Cannlytics dataset carries a 2022-2024 copyright. We pulled it into our strain profiles between June 12 and July 8, 2026. The profiles keep no test dates, so we cannot date individual results.
• Method. For each strain we take each terpene's median across the flower results that matched it when its profile was first built. Later pulls only filled strains that had no profile yet, so existing profiles were not rebuilt with newer results: 340 profiles (62.5%) were built from the first 7 states, before CO, NY and UT were added (one of them was rebuilt later), and 374 (68.8%) predate our July re-sync. A terpene is listed at 0.05% or more, up to 8 per strain, and isomers are summed (alpha- and beta-pinene count as pinene). We track 24 terpenes; 16 others that labs measure (sabinene, camphor, phytol, citronellol and more) are not counted. The top terpene is the highest median; 19 strains tie for first and split the credit. "Total terpenes" is the sum of the listed terpene medians, not a lab-reported total. Every number comes from a reproducible script; we share it, and its full output, on request.
• What we left out. 156 strain profiles built from other sources (an academic dataset, single certificates of analysis and a published paper), so this piece rests on one source and one license. We also dropped 1 Cannlytics profile (Blue Kush) whose record is a placeholder, not a measurement: every cannabinoid on it reads exactly 10%.
• Limits.
  • Not a random sample. The dataset reflects what states and labs made public, as Cannlytics itself notes.
  • We did not compare menus or labels. "Top terpene" always means the highest median in the lab data, never a retail claim.
  • 247 profiles (45.4%) rest on a single lab result. Those counts are as of the run that built each profile; later results for the same strain were not folded in. Caryophyllene's lead holds, and sharpens, with 3 or more results (section 1), but the most common top three changes (section 4).
  • Strains are matched by name. Labels can be wrong, and one strain can appear under two names.
  • Labs run different terpene panels with different methods and detection limits.
  • Totals and leader counts cover only the 24 terpenes we track, the top 8 per strain at 0.05% or more, so totals understate the real figure.
  • Outliers stay in (the highest single total is 4.06%); medians blunt them.
  • This is aroma chemistry. Nothing here is a claim about effects.

Terpenes in this piece