Highland Thai

Description

Genetics: ‘Highland Thai’ Cannabis Landrace
Sourcing: The Real Seed Company, through collectors at source in northern Thailand
Latitude: 19° N
Regional Harvest: December
Height: 2 – 5 metres
Characteristics: Tall; light-green or purple variants; unusual musky citrus aromas; dreamy, heady yet centred high
Classification:  Cannabis sativa subsp. indica var. indica x C. sativa subsp. sativa var. sativa
Grow Type: Greenhouse or outdoors

*** Please check out our recent accession named ‘Burmese’, which is arguably much better than this ‘Highland Thai’. A beautifully aromatic and resinous ganja strain, the Burmese exhibits the same hollow-stemmed fibre trait, while clearly also being selected for ganja production. ***

An unusual cannabis landrace from the highlands of Northern Thailand and the nearby border regions of Burma. This landrace may have resulted through hybridisation of Yunnanese hemp and Thai ganja domesticates, a process through which some Indochinese strains are believed to have originated.

This accession is cultivated by various ethnic groups in the highland border regions of the north, including the Lahu, a trans-border hilltribe living in northern Thailand, northern Laos, Burma and Yunnan. Its appearance and effect are markedly different from those of the Thai–Lao ganja genepool of the Mekong region of Isan, Northeast Thailand.

‘Highland Thai’ can grow exceptionally tall outdoors, given space, potentially reaching over 4 metres. Plants can have notably broader leaflets than typical Sativa-type Thai ganja landraces. Seeds are large and stems are hollow, also suggesting a genetic connection to Yunnanese seed and fibre plants. Planted close or in restricted areas, plants grow to a single stem.

Bracts are large and resinous, with denser bud formation than is usual for ganja landraces. There are two phenotypes, namely green and purple. Green types often have a musky, citrus aroma, and purple-blue phenotypes can exhibit mango–carrot scents.

The high was described by a grower in Hawaii as “potent but unique in providing a clear conscious expansion with a calm quality.” More centered effects, in other words, than the Isan and Lao strains which produced ‘Thai stick’ and a renowned for a more pushy, rushy high.

NOTE: These seeds are second-generation, reproduced through open-pollination outside Thailand.