When I started smoking marijuana for the first time in high school, I was told there were only two kinds available.
The cheap weed was called “mids,” and it was always air-compressed, brick-weed of Mexican origin that was full of stems and seeds. The expensive cannabis was called “dro,” “chronic,” or “crippy.” This was often hydroponically-grown cannabis that was mostly seedless, which used to be called “sensimilla” a few decades back. That’s about all I knew when I entered college, but I was in for a huge surprise when I learned about all of these crazy strains and their genetic origins. We had strains like Sour Diesel, White Widow, Berry White, Blueberry, Skunk, Girl Scout Cookies, Jack Herer, Bubba Kush, and OG Kush which were all derived from various genetic crosses of the cannabis plant that start with landrace cannabis strains. Landrace cannabis are the varieties that are found in the wild in various places around the globe. The Hindu Kush Mountains and the fields of Jamaica are just two examples of places where quality marijuana grows naturally. There are amazing places in Africa, Thailand, Mexico, South America, and Hawaii that possess fantastic landrace strains of the marijuana plant. All of the crazy strains you see these days at the cannabis dispensaries can all trace their lineage back to any number of these original landrace varieties. Some strains like Girl Scout Cookies has a landrace as a direct parent, which is Durban Poison in this case. I love trying new strains of medical cannabis, especially if a good landrace strain is involved.