THE ORIGINS OF CANNABIS STRAINS 101

• Posted on 24 January 2022
• By Sumo
• 0

With this little background knowledge, it may be easier to understand your favourite cannabis strain’s origins, and you will be able to choose more strains that fit your “cannaseur’s palette”. Whether it will be in your legal country, or maybe during a visit to Amsterdam or California , you will be able to navigate in a wide selection of cannabis strains.

Probably all of us cannabis enthusiasts have a specific type of weed that we like the most. Be it a “haze” type of strain, a “kush” or any other type of flavour or effect, you have probably wondered what has made this specific weed so good for you? The different types of cannabis are generally called- strains. Examples of the most famous strains are  Skunk, Northern Lights, White Widow, Jack Herer, OG Kush, Silver Haze etc. They all are cannabis plants but still are characterized by different effects, smells, looks etc. Thanks to years of scientific research about the cannabis plant we now know that the end-effect is comprised of many factors like the THC or other cannabinoids content, terpene (essential oils) profile and the chemistry of a users brain and body. Even though your White Widow buds will probably look the same to an untrained eye as the buds of OG Kush or a Gelato, but still they will give so many different experiences. How is it possible that the same plant produces so many different looks, flavours and smells??

Even though it is hard to pinpoint directly the one place where cannabis originated, we know for certain that various “original” cannabis plants come from many diverse regions in the world like India, Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Hawaii, Jamaica or even Siberia. The originally occurring specific cannabis strains, with their own special genetics tied to the region of origin, are called “landraces”. Those plants will always display a given type of genetic make-up that will distinguish it from the cannabis plants coming from a totally different region of the world.  So, for example, Mexican or Brazilian cannabis plants will usually grow tall, with thin leaves, they will be quite heated tolerant and will provide a user with energetic, uplifting effects. This type of cannabis was categorized as a “Sativa” dominant plant.  The ones originating from India for example will be usually small, but bushy plants with very wide leaves, and will give a user a very relaxing, stoned type of an effect, and those are labelled as “indica” dominant cannabis plants. There is also a third type of cannabis plant coming from the Northern hemisphere, like Alaska or Siberia, and these plants are labelled as “ruderalis” and they are characterized by their cold tolerant nature as well as their ability to flower even in a very low amount of light hours. Those plants are often used in creating “auto-flowering” cannabis seeds.

The most acknowledged distinction between cannabis types is therefore an “indica” and a “sativa”. However now thanks to science, we know that distinction is not a 100% accurate description of cannabis strains and their characteristics. Also, nowadays, due to a massive hybridization and mixing together of different cannabis genetics has resulted in thousands of strains that are difficult to call a pure “indica” or “sativa” because they have all mixed up genetics, and hence are called “hybrids”. The majority of the cannabis sold and used nowadays is therefore an outcome of mixing between different original landrace strains with their indica or sativa characteristics. That mix brings up all the best possible combinations of a look, taste, smell and the effect of our favourite herb. That’s how we now can enjoy so many different variations in our buds. Also, there is a big misconception about the “strong” weed types that are often described as a GMO or chemically enhanced cannabis. This is one of the urban myths that are not true. What really makes cannabis so “strong” it’s the mix of genetics that provided a high number of THC or terpenes!

With this little background knowledge, it may be easier to understand your favourite cannabis strain’s origins, and you will be able to choose more strains that fit your “cannaseur’s palette”. Whether it will be in your legal country, or maybe during a visit to Amsterdam or California , you will be able to navigate in a wide selection of cannabis strains.