Dan Michaels, author of Green: A Field Guide to Marijuana, shares with HIGH TIMES one of the last known interviews with Franco Loja—the late, great Strain Hunter—which first appeared in his book.

All of today’s strains inevitably derive from pure, ancient cannabis plants found throughout the

world and referred to as “landraces.” Landraces occur naturally and adapt to a particular region,

over a long period of time, without any external influences. Franco Loja from Amsterdam’s

Green House Seed Co.—the most awarded seed bank in the world—has been traveling the planet

in search of these rare landraces with a group known as the Strain Hunters.

Why Are Landraces Important?Cannabis is one of the essential resources of our planet. Landraces represent the

most ancient pure form of cannabis we have available, perfected by Mother Nature over

hundreds, sometimes over thousands of years, constantly adapting and evolving, improving their

harmony with the environment they live in. The plants are larger and generally more vigorous;

buds usually form more complex resin that contains more cannabinoids and terpenes. If allowed

to develop large in size, these seeds and plants give massive yields. Perhaps most importantly,

landraces are the basis for breeding and necessary to creating new and different strains of

cannabis.

How Many Different Landrace Varieties Exist?There are many cannabis landraces almost all over the world. Arjan Roskam,

founder of Amsterdam-based Green House Seeds, has been traveling and collecting landraces

since the 1980s. He traveled to Southeast Asia to collect landraces in Vietnam, Cambodia, and

Laos, and later on to Africa and South America. Since we started the Strain Hunters project, back

in 2008, we have collected landraces and documented our travels. We have been to South Africa,

Malawi, India, Morocco, Trinidad, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Swaziland, and

more recently to Colombia with the crew from Vice.com.

Are Landraces Mostly Indica or Sativa?It really varies with the region, but you can say that the only continent on earth

where there are true indica landraces is Asia, especially in the Hindu Kush area (Afghanistan,

Pakistan, North India, South China). For the rest, landraces in Africa, South America, and

Central America are generally sativa; while landraces in Europe and North America are usually

low-THC hemp. An exception is North Africa (Morocco) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan,

Armenia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia) where the landraces are the

ruderalis variety.

How Do You Know Where to Find Landraces?Arjan always says, “If you are looking for cannabis, find man first,” because man

uses cannabis and man propagates cannabis the most, since the beginning of our existence. In

most cases the real landraces are found within poor, isolated rural communities in remote areas

of third world countries. Landraces are always the dominant plant in their own environment and

always overpower any “intrusion.” Unfortunately, many landraces are at risk of extinction

because of eradication programs or crop-replacement government programs, as it happened in

Jamaica and Trinidad. We feel it is our duty to preserve these cannabis landraces for the future of

scientific and medical research, and for the basic human right to use a beneficial plant.

What Are the Most Valuable Landraces?All landraces are valuable, simply because they are plants at risk of being lost

forever. Some landraces are more famous than others, and more in demand. The legendary

names from the hippy times are still popular today; from the 1970s: Punto Rojo and Colombian

Gold, or Malawi Gold, Durban Poison, Limon Verde—these are all very special plants and

genetics with a real history. A history that lives on in pop culture, songs, movies, and through

word of mouth passed on from one generation of marijuana smokers to the next.

Why Are Breeding Hybrids So Important?Mixing genes is always a good thing for the development of any species. This is

one of the basic rules of genetics, valid for all forms of complex life on this planet. The

thousands of strains available today are the result of over 40 years of breeding in the western

world. Cannabis breeding as we know it began on the West Coast of the United States and

Canada in the mid-1960s—and it hasn’t stopped. It just kept spreading and increasing

exponentially. However, there is a need for injecting new genes into the mix. And the best “new”

genes are “old” landraces, for the simple reason that they have been inbreeding and selecting

themselves on a massive scale for a long period of time.

Related: The Top 10 Strains of 2016

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