Glossary

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This is a project information page for Landrace.Wiki. It describes the project's standards, processes, or structure. It is not an encyclopaedic article.

This page defines the vocabulary used across Landrace.Wiki. It covers the wiki's house terminology (point of origin, reproduction, accession), the geographic hierarchy that organises content, and the main cannabis-related concepts a reader is likely to encounter on any page. Discipline-specific glossaries with deeper coverage are planned for individual portals, beginning with Glossary of cannabis botany.

Core concepts

Landrace

A geographically and culturally defined population of a domesticated species, maintained by traditional farmers through ongoing in-situ selection and open pollination. The wiki's working definition is set out at Landrace cannabis.

Population

A group of individuals of the same species occupying a defined area and exchanging genes. Landraces are populations, not lines or strains.

Mass selection

Selection applied to a whole population by saving seed from many plants rather than from individual chosen parents. The mechanism that makes a landrace a population.

Open pollination

Pollination unrestricted by isolation or controlled crossing. Allows free gene flow within a population.

Autochtonous

Native to the place where it is found. On accession pages: Yes if the population originated where it grows, No if it was introduced from elsewhere, Unknown otherwise.

Cultivar

A clonally or sexually propagated variety with a stable, named identity, maintained outside the population dynamics of a landrace.

Hybrid

The offspring of a cross between distinct populations or cultivars. Polyhybrids carry many lineages and are typically several generations removed from any original parent.

Domestication

The long-term genetic change in a wild species under human management. A continuum, not a single event.

Wiki vocabulary

Accession

A documented sample of a cannabis population, with an ID, a collection date and a location. Each accession page on the wiki represents one such sample.

Accession ID

The unique identifier for an accession, in the format COL-COUNTRY-REGION-MMYYYYNNNN (e.g. ZOM-IND-WEB-0620250075). See Help:Documenting Accessions for the full naming scheme.

Point of origin (POO)

Material collected directly at the place where the population grows. Distinguished from material grown elsewhere from POO seed.

Reproduction (repro)

Seed produced outside the point of origin from POO parent material. A reproduction preserves genetics but loses the in-situ environmental and selection pressures of the original site.

Selection

On the wiki, a sub-population chosen from within an accession for a specific trait, location or grower. Distinct from the parent accession but linked to it.

Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3

Documentation depth levels for accession pages. Tier 1 is the minimum viable record (about 46 fields). Tier 2 adds detailed morphology and cultivation data. Tier 3 adds lab analysis, genetic data and a full conservation assessment.

Collector

The person who collected the accession. Logged on each accession page; sometimes withheld for safety.

Expedition

A field trip during which one or more accessions are collected. Each carries a Trip ID linking related accessions.

Smoke report

A community-submitted subjective report on a specific accession's effects, aroma and character. Kept separate from the accession's botanical record. See Community/Smoke Reports for the listing.

Geographic hierarchy

The wiki organises locations through seven conceptual levels. In practice, navigation usually follows the country to growing region to growing area path; the rest are classification metadata. See Help:Geographic pages for the full system.

Gene pool

A grouping of genetically related populations across a wide region (e.g. South Asian Gene Pool, Highland Lao Gene Pool).

Regional complex

A subdivision of a gene pool defined by shared geography and exchange (e.g. Hindu Kush-Himalayan, Khorat Plateau).

Growing region

A discrete cannabis-growing area large enough to carry its own page (e.g. The Dooars, Northern Laos).

Growing area

A subregion within a growing region, typically corresponding to a valley, watershed or administrative district (e.g. Kullu Valley, Chamurchi-Laxmi Duar).

Appellation

A named local origin within a growing area, used where a specific village or terroir produces a distinct expression (e.g. Khao Wang, Rasol).

Field

A specific cultivation site. Used when a single field is documented in its own right.

Locality

The settlement or village nearest the accession. Often used in news items and accession pages where finer subdivisions are not known.

Cannabis types and preparations

Drug-type cannabis

Cannabis cultivated for cannabinoids, as distinct from fibre or seed cannabis.

Hemp

Cannabis cultivated for fibre or seed, with low cannabinoid content.

NLD (Narrow Leaf Drug)

A drug-type cannabis with narrow leaflets, longer flowering, and morphology associated with tropical and subtropical landraces. Often called "sativa" in vernacular usage.

BLD (Broad Leaf Drug)

A drug-type cannabis with broader leaflets, shorter flowering, and morphology associated with high-altitude and temperate landraces. Often called "indica" in vernacular usage.

Sativa, Indica

Vernacular labels for cannabis types, in widespread but inconsistent use. The wiki prefers NLD/BLD where botanical precision matters.

Ganja

Cured female cannabis flowers, particularly seeded flowers in South and Southeast Asian traditions. Also a general term for cannabis in many regional languages.

Charas

Hand-rubbed hashish made by collecting trichome resin from living plants. Traditional in the Western Himalayas.

Hashish

Cannabis resin separated from plant material by sieving, water extraction or pressure, then pressed.

Hash plant

A landrace selected primarily for resin production rather than flower quality. Common in charas-producing regions.

Sinsemilla

Seedless female cannabis flowers, produced by removing male plants before pollination.

Bhang

A traditional South Asian preparation of cannabis leaves and seeds, ground with milk and spices. Distinct from ganja and charas.

Kif

The Moroccan cannabis landrace, and the traditional finely chopped preparation made from it. Use of "beldiya" for the same population is documented but considered displacive (see Landrace cannabis).

Thai stick

Premium Thai cannabis flowers tied to a skewer, produced for export during the 1970s and 1980s.

Conservation

In-situ conservation

Conservation of a population in its place of origin, maintained by the farmers and conditions that shaped it. The primary mode of conservation for landraces.

Ex-situ conservation

Conservation of plant material outside its place of origin, typically as seeds in a gene bank. A complement to in-situ work, not a substitute.

Genetic erosion

The loss of genetic diversity within a population over time. Drivers include genetic bottlenecks, displacement by hybrids, and loss of farmer management.

Introgression

The movement of genes from one population into another through hybridisation and backcrossing. The mechanism behind genetic contamination.

Genetic contamination

Unintended introgression of foreign genetics into a landrace, typically from nearby modern hybrids. A major contemporary threat.

Genetic bottleneck

A sharp reduction in population size that removes alleles from the gene pool. Can be caused by eradication, abandonment of cultivation, or collection of too few seeds.

Genetic drift

Random change in allele frequencies between generations, more pronounced in small populations.

Gene flow

The transfer of genetic material between populations through pollination or seed movement.

Conservation priority

On accession pages: a triage rating of Critical, High, Medium or Low, indicating how urgent the conservation case is for that specific accession.

Conservation Status

On growing-region and growing-area pages: an IUCN-adapted assessment of the population's overall standing in its territory. Values: Stable, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critical, Extinct, Unknown.

Botany and cultivation

Genotype

The genetic makeup of an individual or population.

Phenotype

The observable expression of a genotype in a given environment. Two plants of identical genotype can have different phenotypes.

Photoperiod

The day-length response that determines when a plant transitions from vegetative growth to flowering.

Dioecy

Male and female reproductive structures on separate plants. The default condition in cannabis.

Hermaphroditism

Male and female structures on the same plant. Common as a stress response and as a result of inbreeding.

Roguing

Removing undesirable individuals from a population before they contribute pollen or seed.

Culling

Removing male plants to prevent pollination, particularly in sinsemilla production. A practice that, repeated across generations, contributes to genetic bottlenecking.

Trichome

A glandular outgrowth on the cannabis flower and surrounding leaves, where most cannabinoids and terpenes are produced.

Chemotype

A classification of plants by their dominant cannabinoid profile, e.g. THC-dominant, CBD-dominant, balanced.

Cannabinoid

A class of secondary metabolites that includes THC, CBD, CBG, CBN, THCV and others.

Terpene

A class of aromatic compounds responsible for cannabis's smell. Major terpenes in cannabis include myrcene, limonene, pinene, caryophyllene, terpinolene and linalool.

See also

• Glossary of cannabis botany: deeper coverage of botanical terminology (planned)
• Help:Accessions: how the accession system uses these terms
• Help:Geographic pages: how the geographic hierarchy is structured
• Landrace cannabis: the long-form definition page
• Help:Sourcing: how to cite definitions and concepts