Landrace

Landrace denotes a locally adapted, traditional cultivated population maintained over generations by farmers under low-input conditions, characterized by genetic heterogeneity, local adaptation, and morphological or chemical coherence (Zeven 1998; Camacho Villa et al. 2005). The term combines German Land ("country") and Rasse ("breed"). Cannabis landraces — Afghan Kush, Hindu Kush, Thai, Durban Poison, Malawi Gold, Acapulco Gold, Colombian Gold, Lebanese — represent regionally evolved germplasm and served as founding material for modern hybrid breeding from the 1960s through the 1980s (Clarke & Merlin 2013, Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany). Hillig (2005) sampled landraces extensively in his allozyme work and identified distinct NLD (narrow-leaflet drug, South and Southeast Asia) and BLD (broad-leaflet drug, Afghanistan and Pakistan) landrace gene pools. Landraces retain genetic diversity lost in commercial polyhybrids and are prioritized in germplasm conservation (Small 2015; Watts et al. 2021). → See also: Heirloom, Ruderalis, Cultivar.