What Are Landrace Strains?

Companies tend to proudly mention that their offering is a landrace strain, or that they used a landrace strain to breed the strain they’re selling. The word “landrace” doesn’t really mean anything to the casual consumer. It’s usually there to tip-off cannabis historians and aficionados who would have a profound appreciation for that landrace strain. You can easily get in on this. 

We know where we’re at in the current cannabis story. Landrace strains are where we started. Before we know it, we will have a thousand different strains of pot. At first, we had a little over a dozen. New strains didn’t pop up. They all come from the cannabinoid Pangea of landrace strains. Without landrace strains, we’d all be sober. 

Landrace strains are ancestors

Cannabis is native to Asia and the Middle East, South America, Central America, and in one instance, Jamaica. Landrace strains are the strains that were found out in the wild before anyone was ever cross-breeding cannabis or examining its genetics. This is cannabis people foraged for because it popped up all over the place. 

You might have noticed that some strains are named after a place. That usually means they’re a landrace strain and they’re named for where we found them. Durban Poison is from Durban, South Africa. Acapulco Gold is from Mexico. Afghani is from Afghanistan, Thai is from Thailand, Panama Red is from Panama, Columbian Gold is from Columbia, and Lamb’s Bread is from Jamaica. (Did that last one throw you for a second?)

Landrace strains are the purest of all cannabis. They are the original indica and sativa plants that started the entire journey. They’re weed that has been largely untouched by human influence and left to exist in the form that nature created them. 

How are landrace strains different from modern weed?

As travel between countries became easier, people got curious. They wanted to know what would happen if they were to breed one cannabis plant with another cannabis plant. This process continued and is still continuing.

People loved weed. They kept breeding it and breeding it to enhance its traits and make it stronger. This went on until the landrace strains were completely lost in the noise and barely recognizable. Landrace strains naturally had very low THC in most instances. Now, you can go to the dispensary and pick up a jar of 30% THC flower.

When people say that weed is different now from the way it used to be, they’re absolutely right. It’s ten times more potent in some cases and has very little in common with the original cannabis plants used to create it.

In fact, they’re the only pure indica and sativas in the entire world. Everything else has been adulterated in some way. There are still true indicas and sativas, which refers to strains that never had another variety introduced to their genetics, but they’re still substantially different from the landrace strains. 

Some strains, like Northern Lights, are just combination of two landrace strains. Northern Lights’ parents are Aghani and Thai. It’s a simple combination that represents the best of both landrace strains. That simple pairing remains wildly popular to this day, especially among people who experience chronic pain and have trouble sleeping.

Are landrace strains better?

The idea that landrace strains are important for the genetics of cannabis should always warrant your attention. If you have an opportunity to try a landrace strain, you shouldn’t pass that up. It’s an important lesson in your cannabis education, and it will give you a better perspective as to how weed has evolved throughout the years.

You shouldn’t go into that experience with the idea that landrace strains are somehow better than other strains of cannabis. This simply isn’t the case. While many people love and use landrace strains, they’re not usually the most beneficial of cannabis plants. 

Plants have been bred and cultivated to produce certain effects throughout time. The landrace strain is one raw ingredient that is combined with many other ingredients to finish a recipe. 

The easiest way to envision the progression is to use a food analogy. Thai is a tomato. Without it, we wouldn’t have so many things we love to eat. Then they took Thai and used it to make Northern Lights, which is like tomato sauce. And then Northern Lights went on to parent Super Silver Haze, which is pizza. 

Yes, there’s a time and place for tomatoes. There’s a time and place for tomato sauce. But you probably want the pizza more than you want raw tomatoes. The pizza is going to satisfy a whole bunch of cravings and needs, where a raw tomato will only solve a few.