Cannabis Landraces Decoded: What’s in a Name?

Cannabis connoisseurs may notice a term that has been gaining in popularity over the years that has some mysterious connotations: Landrace.

What is a Landrace?

In its truest, agricultural sense, a Landrace is a genetically isolated variant of a particular species that has developed its own genetic characteristics with a certain level of stability, and adapted to its particular climate. Think Black Angus cattle, Texas Longhorns, the Spanish Churro sheep famously raised by the Navajo in the American Southwest.

What is a cannabis landrace?

This is where things get tricky. Strictly speaking, the term Landrace is incorrectly applied when it comes to cannabis. 

While there are certain varieties of cannabis that can trace their traits to a particular region/locale, cannabis “landraces” are not historically untouched, because all breeders of agricultural crops stand on the shoulders of thousands of years of breeders before them who have all played a part in the domestication and selective breeding process thereafter. Therefore, the term landrace has come to be misused in cannabis, as this technically makes these strains highly localized cultivars, not true landraces.

In the cannabis community, landrace has become generally accepted as the term for these highly localized cultivars.

As an example, one classic strain, White Widow, is a cross between a Brazilian “landrace” sativa, and a South Indian Indica “landrace”. These two highly localized cultivars had been brought from their respective territories, genetically stabilized, and bred until the fifth generation, resulting in repeatable stable genetics that are fairly uniform in their genetic expressions. 

Another example of a classic “landrace” is the South African strain Durban Poison. The Durban Poison we know originated from a phenotype that was hand selected by its original strain hunters and bred for genetic stability. SO, even this local cultivar from South Africa underwent selective breeding before it made its way to us. 

At Robinsons of Maine, we are always striving to source rare, interesting genetics as options for our patients. One particular trait we seek out: cultivars bred specifically for the production of charas.

Charas, or traditional hand-rubbed hashish have been produced since as least as far back as 4000 BCE. The plants used to make them have been selected for high resin production and terpene profile ever since. They have also been selectively bred to withstand the stresses of being hand-rubbed several times throughout the grow season, making for a hearty strain that can withstand the harsh climate and wind battering of the central Maine hills where we grow our crops. 

Folding in the genetics that have made these cultivars successful and hearty for thousands of years has many benefits to our patients, not the least of which is a unique terpene/taste profile not before available to the Maine medical community.

Dry-sift, hand pressed hashish, made in-house from several landrace strains from Balochistan, a mountainous region in Pakistan which is world-renowned from antiquity on for its floral, citrusy charas, are available on our menu for a limited time only. Ask us about our landrace genetics and products or review our menu any time.

Landrace genetics play a vital role in cannabis breeding, and more landrace, heirloom cultivars are lost every year due to introduction of modern, standardized genetics. Now more than ever, it is important for small-scale, craft cannabis growers caregivers to preserve and develop these historic genetics.

Ask us about landraces, microbes, fertilizer, sustainability, organic farming, pollinators and the like any time! We love what we do and we are passionate about our process. We learn every day and we love to learn from our patients, peers, and fellow industry professionals.