Cannabis Landrace

According to the definition in the encyclopedia of plant genetic resources, a landrace is an early, cultivated form of a crop species, evolved from a wild population, and generally composed of a heterogeneous mixture of genotypes. Therefore a cannabis landrace is a marijuana plant species that has been geographically isolated from the possibility of cross-breeding with any other strain of a similar plant species. If we were discussing vegetables or another type of plant we'd be using the term "heirloom".

For many years some of the leading Cannabis Seed Company owners have taken a keen interest in preserving the great original marijuana strains of the world and several even work together, creating Seed Banks. There are some important reasons that landrace cannabis has become popular, first because they're the best strains for cross-breeding to make new marijuana strains or brands, maybe the only true way to make a new strain and secondly the plants themselves are fabulous to smoke in their natural form and have recently become very popular amongst both recreational smokers and medical marijuana patients. This dispels a myth that THC content has increased in modern strains of marijuana, as any cannabis landrace will get you very high.

Some of the more famous landrace cannabis strains are from Afghanistan, Africa, Brazil, India, Mexico and Thailand but that's generalizing because according to botany a plant growing from the same strain of seed, such as Jamaica Lambs Bread, for a long enough period of time, without being crossed with another strain, can be known as a landrace. Some of the other best known strain brands are Hindu Kush (pictured), Malawi Gold, or Acapulco Gold, which I recently heard was re-produced by a Dutch grower and brought back to the Coffeeshops in Amsterdam and has become very popular.