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Landrace Strains: What They Are and the Classic List

Landrace strains are the local cannabis varieties that farmers kept and replanted for generations in one place, shaped by its climate and its uses, from the hash plants of Afghanistan to the kif of Morocco. Many were already hard to find by the 1980s, lost to crossing.

From Bubbleman’s own words on Hash Church, with plant science on landraces and cannabis botany.

A landrace strain is a traditional local variety of cannabis, kept and replanted by farmers in one region for generations without formal breeding, and adapted to that place. The classic hash landraces include the Afghani plants of Afghanistan, the narrow-leaf plants of India and Nepal behind charas, Morocco’s kif and the plants of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Most modern strains are hybrids descended from them.

Found some 20 year old seeds: Bubbleman’s Jamaican seeds and two from the BC Hashplant (2014), Bubbleman’s World on YouTube (41K views)

What is a landrace strain?

A landrace strain is a cannabis variety that belongs to a place. Plant scientists define a landrace as a cultivated population with its own local history and identity that formal breeding never touched: usually genetically diverse, adapted to its region and kept alive by traditional farming. In cannabis, that means the plants farmers in Afghanistan, India, Morocco or Jamaica saved seed from, year after year, for hash, smoke or fiber.

Classic landrace strain list

Here is a classic landrace strain list, by the regions that made the old hashes:

RegionLandraceKnown for
AfghanistanAfghaniBroad leaflet hash plants; the botanist Nikolai Vavilov named them afghanica
India and NepalIndian and Nepali plantsThe narrow leaflet plants behind hand rubbed charas
MoroccoKifThe Rif’s local plant, adapted to its dry hills
LebanonBekaa Valley plantsBlonde and red Lebanese hash
JamaicaLamb’s Bread and other hill sativasTall plants Bubbleman ties to Indian roots
MexicoOaxacan GoldA highland line from 1979 that lives on in a cross Bubbleman has been growing

The Afghani landrace

The Afghani landrace is the broad leaflet hash plant of Afghanistan, the one Vavilov named afghanica and the one most people mean when they say indica. It is the plant behind Afghan hash.

Landraces and sativa vs indica

Landraces and sativa vs indica turn out to be a tangle. The cannabis botanist John McPartland traces it like this: the plants people call “sativa” are really the narrow leaflet drug plants of Indian heritage, the ones they call “indica” are the Afghani hash plants Vavilov named afghanica, and all of them are one species, Cannabis sativa. So much crossing has happened since that the labels barely mean anything; a hybrid called AK-47 won Best Sativa at the 1999 Cannabis Cup and Best Indica four years later.

Why landrace genetics are disappearing

Landrace genetics are disappearing because the plants keep being crossed. McPartland notes that unhybridized plants of Indian heritage and Afghani landraces were already hard to come by more than 30 years ago. Morocco’s kif has been giving way to high yield hybrids since the early 2000s, and Bubbleman watched Jamaica’s tall hill sativas of the 1990s replaced within about a decade by small, quick plants that could be hidden in the bogs.

From the archive: Bubbleman on landraces

From the archive, Bubbleman on landraces in his own words, from three live Sunday shows. Tap a time to hear that moment.

Season 12, Episode 23, Thailand cannabis with Prevempe

  1. There’s a real importance of preserving those genetics… I don’t even pretend to know how many are truly beyond preservation already. They may just be what we call narrowleaf drug cultivars or sativas, they might not fit into the actual category of land race.On preserving them
  2. I saw Jamaica growing the most beautiful sativas in the 90s, and by 2005, you know, these auto-flowering, small little spike plants that they could grow in like bogs and stuff rather than climb way up the mountain.On Jamaica’s lost sativas

Season 12, Episode 19, Live from The Reserve, Denver

  1. These are once again another cluster of narrow leaf drug cultivars collected from around the world, probably mostly India, and grown on the island… because it’s so damn close to the equator.On Jamaica’s Lamb’s Bread

Season 12, Episode 32

  1. Skunk One crossed with Highland Oaxacan Gold 1979 crossed with Bang Long Nepali. So I’m just enjoying sativas these days, narrow leaf drug cultivars.On the sativas he grows

Landraces and hash

Landraces and hash grew up together. Each of the old types of hash came from its local plants: Afghan hash from Afghani plants, charas from the Himalayan plants of India and Nepal, Moroccan hash from kif, Lebanese from the Bekaa Valley. Their flavors were as much the plant as the process.

Landrace seeds

Landrace seeds are precious because they can’t be remade. In 2014 Bubbleman opened seeds he had collected in Jamaica almost 20 years before, and two from the famous BC Hashplant, to see whether they would still sprout. His own view is that the old lines deserve preserving, and that they are also the raw material for something new.

Landrace strain questions

Landrace strain questions, answered short:

What is a landrace strain?

A landrace strain is a traditional local cannabis variety, kept and replanted by farmers in one region for generations without formal breeding.

What are some landrace strains?

Some landrace strains are the Afghani plants of Afghanistan, the narrow leaflet plants of India and Nepal, Morocco’s kif, Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley plants, Jamaica’s Lamb’s Bread and Mexico’s Oaxacan Gold.

Are landrace strains sativa or indica?

Landrace strains can be either, in everyday terms: the narrow leaflet Indian plants are what people call sativa, and the broad leaflet Afghani plants are what they call indica.

Why are landrace strains rare?

Landrace strains are rare because decades of crossing have blended most of them away; even by the 1980s, pure Afghani and Indian plants were hard to find.

Can you buy landrace seeds?

You can sometimes buy seeds sold as landraces, but true landraces are hard to verify, and old local lines are worth preserving wherever they turn up.

Sources for this guide to landrace strains

Sources for this guide to landrace strains:

  1. Defining and identifying crop landraces (Camacho Villa and others, 2005), Plant Genetic Resources
  2. Cannabis systematics at the levels of family, genus, and species (McPartland, 2018), Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
  3. Hashish revival in Morocco (Chouvy and Afsahi, 2014), International Journal of Drug Policy
  4. Found some 20 year old seeds, Bubbleman’s World on YouTube
  5. Hash Church Season 12, Episodes 19, 23 and 32: Bubbleman on landraces, linked above