South American Cannabis Seeds

Where they come from and how they settled in

These strains popped up all over Central and South America, each one moulding itself to its own patch of earth. Mexican landraces got their names straight from the map, Chiapan, Guerreran, Nayarit, Michoacan, Oaxacan, Sinoalan, and each one tells you where it's from.

Colombian varieties started life high up in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a brutal place where mornings can freeze and afternoons bake, then spread inland to spots like Meta.

Brazilian Sativa Landrace, or Manga Rosa (that's Portuguese for pink mango), arrived with enslaved Africans back in the 1500s and made itself at home in the tropical northeast.

From deserts to rainforests, these plants found a way to thrive anywhere up to 50 degrees south of the equator. 

Oaxaca grew in a long, warm valley squeezed between two mountain ranges, perfect conditions for a world-class sativa.

Colombian Gold and Punto Rojo came from equatorial zones where the seasons stretch on forever, whilst Panama Red made its name in the 60s, probably borrowed from Colombian stock that liked Panama's sticky climate.

What they look and smell like

South American landraces are proper sativas through and through. They grow tall and lanky, with long, airy buds, skinny leaves, loads of side branches, and big gaps between the nodes.

Colombian types tend to be cone-shaped with a strong central stem and plenty of space between branches, whilst Mexican ones have fluffy, bright green leaves often streaked with gold.

The flowers aren't dense and chunky like indicas, they're loose and spindly, with more flower bits than leaf.

Acapulco Gold smells earthy and spicy with a sweet edge, plus hints of burnt toffee and citrus. There are terpenes like caryophyllene (peppery), limonene (lemony), myrcene (musky, mango-ish), pinene (piney), and terpinolene (woody).

Colombian Gold hits with a pungent, woody, citrusy, skunky, piney mix, thanks to caryophyllene, humulene (hoppy), and myrcene.

Brazilian Sativa Landrace smells like ripe mango or papaya with a splash of citrus and herbal spice, driven by myrcene, limonene, and caryophyllene. Panama Red earned part of its name from the fiery red hairs covering its dark green buds.

How they spread and changed the game

Back in the 60s and 70s, seeds from these strains got smuggled into the US and Europe by counterculture travellers, soldiers coming home, and hippies on the road. Colombian Gold and Panama Red became instant hits, with Panama Red flooding North America throughout the 60s.

By the late 70s, though, Central American landraces started to fade as governments cracked down and Colombian and American growers ramped up competition.

But their legacy stuck around. Colombian Gold became a parent of Skunk #1, which is probably the most important hybrid ever, Skunk then gave us Cheese. Colombian genetics also fed into Haze, which led to Original Amnesia and a whole family of potent strains. 

Dutch breeders crossed Brazilian Sativa Landrace with South Indian indica in the 90s and created White Widow, a world-famous hybrid.

Oaxacan Highland helped shape early Haze breeding, and Punto Rojo and Colombian Gold became building blocks for countless modern strains.

Keeping them pure and the fight to save them

South American landraces are genetically pure, they've never been crossed with anything else, so they've kept their original makeup intact. They're the closest thing we've got to wild cannabis, showing how the plant adapted to specific places over thousands of years.

But that purity comes with a downside: they don't cope well outside their home turf. They lack the disease resistance and mould tolerance that modern hybrids have been bred for, and they struggle in climates that aren't warm and tropical.

Back where they came from, native landrace groups are under threat. Centuries of random cross-pollination, inbreeding, and rough farming have watered down the genetics.

Eradication campaigns and competition from modern strains haven't helped either. 

Seed banks and breeders are working hard to preserve what's left, keeping collections of landrace and stabilised hybrid genetics from all over the world.

It's a race against time to protect this biodiversity, because these ancient strains are the foundation for future breeding and the closest link we have to the plant's wild roots.