All modern cannabis genetics have one thing in common: they stem from wild specimens, known as landraces, that can be found all over the world.
These wild varieties feature unique traits they gained after adapting to the challenges of different environments. The Kush you smoked last night, and the Gorilla currently growing in your garden, all have landrace ancestors, and some of their most notable traits can still be traced back to those predecessors.
Those landrace strains may look quite different from our modern selection, and many might underestimate them on first glance. However, they still hold up to this day, and there are quite a few you should keep on your radar.
What Are Landrace Strains?
Landrace strains, in short, are the original cannabis strains we derive our modern varieties from today. They were first found in various regions of Thailand, South Africa, and Mexico, and could be distinguished by the individual traits they picked up to deal with their environment.
Although humans introduced cannabis to the rest of the planet, landrace strains are feral specimens that adapted and thrived in the wild. Their ability to spread, of course, can be heavily credited to birds and animals that ate their seeds and spread them around. Since this gave them the chance to develop unique, appealing characteristics, they came to possess cannabinoid and terpene levels that made them desirable to growers and breeders.
Realizing this, strain hunters in the mid and later 20th century would travel the planet in search of untapped landrace genetics. Once discovered, they would give them to growers who would add their traits into the ever-increasing cannabis gene pool, giving rise to new generations of exciting cultivars.
We talk about those strains all the time, though. Considering that, we’d like to take some time to focus on those pivotal landrace strains. These varieties are mainly the first-generation varieties that stem from wild specimens found thriving in nature. They’re the closest you’ll get to true landrace genetics today, though, and we consider them accordingly.
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