So I was reading this post online:
Landrace Strains: These 12 Types Of Marijuana Started Everything
These 12 Types Of Marijuana Started Everything
But... he does not list 12 strains that started everything, and only has an incomplete list of 10 landraces. Go figure. They are:
- Thai: Sativa from Thailand.
- Panama Red: Sativa from Panama.
- Hindu Kush: Indica from the Kush Mountain range on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
- Afghani: Indica from the Afghan area.
- Durban Poison: Sativa from Durban area of South Africa.
- Punto Rojo – Sativa from Columbia.
- Acapulco Gold – Sativa from Mexico.
- Lamb’s Bread – Sativa from Jamaica.
- Malawi – Sativa from Malawi, Africa.
- Luang Prabang – Sativa from Laos.
I cannot say that I agree with this 'missing 2 strains' list for anything useful. Panama Red was more common in NorCal in the early 1970s, but faded out and was replaced mainly by the closely related bricked lowland Colombian
Punta Roja (not to be confused with the superior
Punto Rojo).
Punta Roja will put you under the table every time and is not racy at all like
Punto Rojo is. I would not make any distinction between Afghani and Hindu Kush either. Durban Poison is also more likely an heirloom. Also current Laos strains were mainly derived from Thai genetics, and moved across the border after the VN War ended and Thailand cracked down on growing weed. Also like Panama Red, Acapulco Gold was around before 1975, but became drown out by other (and often times better) Mexican weed from Oaxaca, Michoacan, and Guerrero. This list is also missing some key landrace strains, like Oaxacan, and Brazilian, and most notably, Kerala ganja and Colombian Gold. He does not even list any strains from India. WTF? And only Punto Rojo from Colombia?
My list of the 12 basic genetic powerhouse landrace strains, from most influential to less influential include:
1) Colombian Gold (from the east highlands around Santa Marta)
2) Thai (the earlier skinny 'Thai sticks' from the Golden Triangle)
3) SW highland Mexican varieties (a swath of landraces from Oaxaca, Michoacan and Guerrero)
4) Kerala and South India ganja
5) Afghani-Pakistani indica (the classic that was made into hashish for eons)
6) Punta Roja (the lowland Colombian Red, includes Panama Red)
7) Punto Rojo (from the eastern slopes of the western mountains in Colombia)
8) Lambs Bread/Lambs Breath (from Jamaica mon!)
9) Brazilian (Amazonian sativas, including Manga Rosa)
10) East Mediterranean "indica" hash plants (really sativa landraces from Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt made into hashish)
11) Durban Poison (from South Africa before the Swazi genetics took over)
12) North India sativas, like Malana Cream
Runners up include (consider these all tied for the 12th spot): Cambodian Red, Malawi Gold, Congo (African Black Magic), Zacatecas Purple (Big Sur Holy), Korean (Romulan), Moroccan, Greek Kalamata, the Hawaiian heirlooms (Kona Gold and Maui Waui), Azad-Kashmere, Zamal, Colombian Green (from the west coast), Swazi Gold, Mangobitche (from Colombia, exactly where is not known), VietNam Black, Giant Nepalese, Colombian Black (Wacky Weed), Kilimanjaro, Purple Highland Laotian, and likely some others that I have forgotten. And do not forget Ruderalis, the wild landrace that gave us auto flowering. Where do I put that on this list?
Note that I list the indicas farther down the list, as they were not prevalent in breeding outside of IBL in their native areas until the "Hippie Trail" people brought seeds back from Asia. Until the later 1970s, the only 'weed' we got from there and North Africa (mainly Morocco) was in the form of hashish. Now hashish was lovely stuff, but it was made from landraces and not breeding stock. Hashish also lacked seeds. Most all early breeding stock came from bag weed seeds, and most bag weed was sativa from Thailand, Mexico, India, other parts of SE Asia, Colombia and to a lesser extent Jamaica, South Africa, The Congo and Brazil. I never saw any Malawi weed back in the day, or Brazilian. I add Brazilian as it was used to make White Widow (and later Black Widow by Scott/AKA: Shantibaba -bowing to the master breeder-).