This article is the number nine in a series focused on the most important landraces of cannabis. All the thousands of strains of cannabis we use today are derived from a limited number of landraces, which have been used for medicinal, religious and recreational purposes during centuries. Cannabis originated in central Asia, and from there it has spread to all corners of the world. Sometimes helped by nature, sometimes by man, cannabis seeds have conquered inimmaginable distances, spreading their genetics, adapting to new environments, changing their carachteristics, and therefore resulting in countless combinations. Some of these combinations stabilized themselves through imbreeding, and resulted in landraces. Some of these landraces have preserved themselves, isolated in remote areas of the planet with no contact with other cannabis strains for long periods of time.
My name is Franco, my passion is cannabis, and my work is strain-hunting for Green House Seed Company.
And this is the history of:
Oaxaca Sativa
Mexico is a hugely diverse federal country, comprising 31 states. The state of Oaxaca, located along the Pacific Ocean in the southern part of the nation, is quite different from the rest of Mexico. It is a colorful place, where 16 different ethnic groups of indigenous people live side by side with the Spanish-descent whites, making a total population of 3 and a half million. The indigenous civilizations flourished around the 12-13th Century, establishing agriculture, fishing, mining, trading. In the 15th century the Aztecs conquered the area, soon to be toppled by the Spanish. When the Spanish troops conquered the area and settled, the agriculture of the area had a boost, and cannabis continued to flourish. In 1821 Mexico became independent from Spain, and since then Oaxaca has been on of the poorest and most underdeveloped states of the country, with a poor road network and limited links to the capital city. The area has several mountain ranges, and a main central valley, with an average altitude on the sea level of 1500 meters. The population lacks education, basic infrastructures and proper sanitation. Nevertheless the quality of life is slowly improving over the last 10-20 years. The main resource is agriculture, with a large production of coffee beans. Tourism is increasing, but remains marginal in the generation of income. Cannabis represents the most effective survival crop for the poorest people in the region.
Cannabis is present on the Oaxaca mountains since a very long time. Nobody knows exactly when it arrived, and from where. Some speculate that the first seeds were brought by the Spanish fleet in the 15th and 16th centuries, while others predate the appearance of cannabis to the first migrations of men from Asia into the American continent, around 20000-15000 years ago. What is sure is that by the time the Spanish conquered the area imposing their civilization, cannabis was being used by the local indigenous tribes for medicinal as well as religious purposes, together with a large number of other psychedelics. The central valley of Oaxaca is one of the most fertile areas of Latin America, and cannabis has been thriving here for very long, and nowadays the Oaxaca Sativa is considered one of the most famous Latin American landraces. It is a tall, lanky sativa, with long branches and long flower clusters, non-overlapping leaflets and a generally thin shape. The plants are usually planted very close to each others, preventing the formation of a conspicuous branch system. When the space between plants allows it, branches grow long and tend to spread out in a very horizontal fashion.
The buds grow long, not extremely compact, and covered in long hairs, turning orange to red very soon in the ripening process. The scent is minty and fresh, woody, with a fruity background that reminds of sweet mango. There is a sourness to it, and it translates very true to its scent after combustion. Flowering time is long, at 11-13 weeks, but the subtropical latitude ensures almost all-year round flowering possibilities. The Oaxaca Sativa belongs to the group of sub-tropical sativas that flower at any photoperiod under 13-14 hours of light, making it a very flexible genetic for many areas of the planet. The Oaxaca Sativa grows at any altitude between sea level and 1800 meters, and most of the times it is planted is small patches under the forest canopy. The limited amount of direct sunlight the plants receive in this particular setup is also responsible for the tall development and the stretchy attitude usually attributed to the landrace.
The first time the Oaxaca Sativa became famous worldwide was in the 1970s, when many American and Canadian travelers brought back seeds to the west coast of the US and Canada and started breeding them to obtain faster flowering versions of the landrace. The Oaxaca Sativa became a true hippie legend, one of the most sought-after strains during the endless University rallies and anti-war demonstrations of the 1970 throughout America and Europe. Some of the most famous cannabis breeders of the 1960s and 1970s, including the Haze Brothers and Neville, used the Oaxaca Sativa for some of their creations. To this day, the genes of the Oaxaca Sativa live on in famous strains like Neville's Haze, Super Silver Haze, Mexican Haze. The Oaxaca Sativa was at the base of the creation of pure Haze, the most famous sativa hybrid ever, in turn at the origin of hundreds of famous crosses available today.
Over the last 10 years several cannabis tourists have imported seeds from other origin into Oaxaca, in the quest to increase local production and shorten the flowering time. These imported strains have somehow diluted a bit the gene-pool of the landrace, but it is a minor effect, visible in isolated parcels. Most of the cannabis growing under the thick forest, is still the original landrace.
In Oaxaca cannabis is a cash crop, and small scale production is side by side with larger operations under the control of organized crime syndicates, or cartels. Mexico is the most violent country on the planet, and drug trade is one of the engines of the economy, creating social despair and thousands of victims on the streets. Oaxaca is less violent than the northern parts of Mexico, near the US border, but the proximity to South America makes it an ideal stop-over for cocaine transports on the way to north America. It is not an easy situation, and it seems not likely to change anytime soon. Luckily, the plants don't bother and keep growing....
Franco – Green House Seed Co.
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