Landrace
Definition: A landrace is a cannabis variety that adapted to a specific region through many generations of local cultivation, with little or no crossing from outside genetics. Landraces carry the traits their home climate selected for, such as early finishing in the Hindu Kush or long flowering in Thailand, and they form the foundation of modern strains.
How Landrace works
Farmers saving seed from their best plants year after year, in the same valley or coastal strip, gradually produced populations tuned to local rainfall, temperature and day length. That slow, mostly unplanned selection is what makes a landrace. Well-known examples include Afghani and Hindu Kush from Central Asia, Thai and Lao sativas from Southeast Asia, Durban Poison from South Africa, and Acapulco Gold from Mexico.
How landraces grow outside their home
- Mountain indica landraces usually finish in 7 to 8 weeks and handle cool nights, making them good parents for northern outdoor strains.
- Equatorial sativa landraces can flower 12 to 16 weeks or more and may never finish outdoors in most of the US before frost.
- Expect more plant-to-plant variation than with a modern IBL, since landraces are diverse populations rather than single selections.
Why they matter
Nearly every popular strain traces back to a handful of landraces. Their genetic diversity is a reservoir breeders return to for vigor, pest resistance and unusual terpene profiles. Once a landrace is grown and preserved elsewhere without crossing, many growers call it an heirloom.