Landrace Strains and their History.

What are They?

When speaking cannabis, variety is really the spice of life. There seems to be a strain attached to every occasion. Whether you are sitting on the coach and binge watching the Sopranos, or on a mountain enjoying a full day of hiking, there are strains that accompany these activities and make them that much greater. Most cannabis consumers know that Sativas create effects of energy, and Indicas create effects of relaxation and the desire to sleep, but did you know that out of all the crazy cannabis strains around today with names like Where’s My Bike and Monkey Mints, to Wedding Cake and Comatose, all these strains in fact trace back to a only a single handful of phenotypes that grow in the wild naturally. Yes, key word here is “naturally”. These natural growing cannabis strains trace back to historical documents of 2900 BC and go by the term of “Landraces”. This means, that every single strain we enjoy today, will trace back to only a few landrace genetics which make up all the terpene profiles in cananbis. The highly sought after skunky, kushy smell that is well associated with indica strains of Kush genetics, come from a region in Afghanistan and Pakistan known as the Hindu Kush mountains. The landrace from this area known as Hindu Kush was the starting point for all of the OG Kush and Pink Kush strains that we all love so much. True landrace strains have not been crossed with any other strain of cannabis. Ok guys wait for it… Wait for it… And here I welcome you the 6 famous landraces that have been crossed a million times over to make up all the flavours we enjoy today.

Panama Red – Central America
Accapulco Gold – Mexico
Durban Poison – South Africa
Hindu Kush – Pakistan
Pure Afghan – Afghanistan
Lambs Bread – Jamaica

These God given strains are a biological starting point of all the effects and terpenes we experience in the cannabis we consume today. Over time, breeders have crossed these genetics to create cannabis strains geared towards certain effects. The pure sativa strains we know of that create feelings of upliftment and energy, for example Green Crack and Super Silver Haze would have been created by crossing the sativa landraces Acapulco Gold, Durban Poison, Panama red. Overtime, the genetics change, and ultimately improve towards the effects the breeders are searching for. This works the same for strains on the indica spectrum which have been cross bred for generations to create the famous and potent indicas we know of today! So in conclusion, just like cars, cannabis is becoming fine tuned and improving over time to create a wide range of cannabis strains to accompany basically any activity or social setting you could possibly get yourself into. Wow, I really love cannabis!