CANNABIS HISTORY
Madness & Merriment
A History of Cannabis Strain Names
by Karla Deel , contributing writer
12 May 2022
We all have our favorite cannabis strains . We love them for the way they smell , taste , and make us feel . Humans established a connection to the cannabis plant centuries ago , and today ’ s strains are the ancestors of ancient ones carried forth . The evolutionary history of cannabis strains is tied directly to the movement and migration of humans across the planet . Over time , humans transported the plant through an exchange of seeds acquired from Afghanistan , India , Thailand , Colombia , Jamaica , and Mexico .
The plant ’ s journey through disparate climates and cultures impacted various strains and their genetic development . Cultivators continue to change the course of the plant ’ s future by altering the genetic histories through interbreeding , leaving us with what we mostly have today : hybrids with unique names .
How did we get from those wild plants indigenous to the Himalayas to today ’ s highly altered , crossbred strains ? And are cannabis naming conventions born from the history of genetics and geography , playful imagination , or both ?
I am sure you ’ ve noticed that sometimes you can deduce what a strain is and how it will taste and make you feel simply from its name . For example , Early Lemon Berry suggests it will be zesty , refreshing , and uplifting , and it is . But other times , a strain ’ s name doesn ’ t reflect anything about it at all ( Night Terror OG , Miss U . S . A ., and 5th Dimension , as examples ).
If traditional cannabis strains were named after the region in which they grew , then modern names reflect the wit and wile of the cultivators ( but also , and often , the sensory experience of the smell and taste of a strain : strawberry , lemon , lavender , diesel , etc .).
Modern cannabis naming began in the 1960s when cannabis cultivation became popular in the United States . Growers began importing strains from around the world , known as landrace strains , which today serve as the backbone of our diverse cannabis genetics . The word landrace comes from the
Sativa
Indica
Ruderalis
Danish and means origin . A plant becomes a landrace when it adapts to its environment in such a way that it can thrive without assistance . These original landrace strains traveled from the Himalayas to China to Europe and eventually reached us here in the United States . Afghan Kush and Durban Poison are examples of landrace strains still popular today and ones that relay their geographical imprint in their name . As growers began experimenting , the number of new strains outgrew the regions from where they came , and new and more creative names came into play , making it harder to deduce strain info from the name alone .