Jump to content
Toggle search
Toggle menu
  • 3.9K articles
  • 1.1K files
  • 88 users
  • 31.6K edits
Landrace.wiki
Toggle preferences menu
Toggle personal menu
Not logged in
Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits.

Since 7 October 2026 every request to landrace.wiki passes through Cloudflare, a security service brought in after a denial-of-service attack made the site unreachable. The Privacy policy now explains what this means for your data.

Hang kra rog

From Landrace.wiki
More actions
A smiling man in a red long-sleeved shirt stands on a dirt roadside holding up a cut cannabis branch taller than his head, its long tapering clusters of flowers drooping from the stem.
A branch of a "Squirrel Tail" selection in Sakon Nakhon, November 2024
A branch of a "Squirrel Tail" selection in Sakon Nakhon, November 2024
Hang kra rog
หางกระรอก
Name
Kind of nameLocal name
Registered cultivar
Also calledHang Kra Rog
Hang Kra Rok
Hang Krarok
Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan
LanguageThai
Meaningsquirrel's tail
Refers toA type of cannabis plant and its flower; a line of it registered as a plant variety
Place and time
CountryThailand
PlacesPhu Phan
Sakon Nakhon Province
Kalasin Province
First recorded2019[1]
RegisteredHang Kra Rog Phu Phan ST1, Department of Agriculture, by January 2022[2]
Accessions under this name
All accessions under this name

Hang kra rog (หางกระรอก, "squirrel's tail") is a Thai name for a type of cannabis associated with the Phu Phan range in Sakon Nakhon Province, in north-eastern Thailand. The name refers to inflorescences that resemble the tail of a squirrel.[3]: 47 A line selected from seed matched with the descriptions of folk doctors in Sakon Nakhon, Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan ST1, was one of five cannabis cultivars registered with Thailand's Department of Agriculture by January 2022.[4]: 2[2] After Thailand allowed the medical use of cannabis in 2019, Thai medical programmes, universities and the press used the name for the cannabis grown in Sakon Nakhon, and some Thai writers equate it with Thai stick.[1][5]: 29

Name

The name, "squirrel's tail", describes the flower clusters.[3]: 47[6] The registration of 2021 spells it Hang Kra Rog, as do the genome study of 2025 and a 2023 analysis of flower;[4]: 2[6][7] a 2026 breeding study writes Hang Kra Rok[8] and a 2025 genetic study Hang Krarok.[9]: 69–70 The name is often joined to the range in Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan, and the applicants for the registration also called the folk type Hang Kra Rog Sakon Nakhon.[4]: 2

Some Thai sources call it Thai stick. A 2022 study by researchers at the Sakon Nakhon campus of Rajamangala University of Technology Isan calls Sakon Nakhon an area known for the best-quality cannabis, "Thai cannabis of the hang kra rog line (Thai stick)", a native line that its authors say grew naturally on the Phu Phan before cannabis was made a narcotic.[5]: 29 A 2025 study from the same campus calls its material "Thai stick cannabis, also known as Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan".[3]: 46 In March 2019 the president of the Cannabis Council of Thailand, an advocacy body, said that the hang kra rog line, known abroad as Thai stick, was one of the five best strains in the world;[10] later press reports repeated his words.[11]

The plant

The applicants for the registration questioned village sages and folk doctors in Sakon Nakhon, on the Phu Phan range and in nearby areas. Their informants described hang kra rog by its flowers and its smell: a large inflorescence in clusters like a squirrel's tail, with a scent like ripe mango and no pungent smell.[4]: 2[12] The plants kept in the selection were 3 to 4 metres tall, with a canopy about 60 to 80 centimetres across and many dense, roughly triangular clusters of flowers at the branch tips; the leaves fell from the base of the branches when the plant flowered, and the long branch bases were likened to a bunch of squirrels' tails.[4]: 3

A botanical description of the registered line, by the Medicinal Plant Research Institute of Thailand's Department of Medical Sciences and the Department of Botany of Mahidol University, describes a taproot, an erect stem 3 to 4 metres tall and palmate leaves of three to nine narrow leaflets, 0.2 to 1.3 centimetres wide and up to 10 centimetres long, with serrated margins. The plants are dioecious, seldom with both sexes on one plant. The female inflorescence is a triangular cluster about 30 centimetres long. The seed is about 4.5 millimetres wide and 3.5 millimetres long, cream-brown with brown lengthwise stripes.[4]: 8–9

When Kasetsart University's Sakon Nakhon campus harvested its first cannabis flowers in December 2019, a plant taxonomist there said that hang kra rog and hang suea are close in form and height and are told apart by the inflorescence: in hang kra rog many small flowers are packed tightly into a large inflorescence that smells of mango when touched.[13]

The cannabis in 14 illicit plots cut on the range in Kut Bak in November 2020 was of the hang kra rog type, four to five months old and on average 2.5 metres tall.[14]

Registration

The applicants for the registration of Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan ST1 were the Department of Medical Sciences and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan; the line was selected by the department's Medicinal Plant Research Institute with the university's Sakon Nakhon campus and Mahidol University.[4]: 2 The applicants wrote that the type had existed since ancient times and was widely spoken of, and that it was found along the Phu Phan range in Sakon Nakhon and Kalasin provinces, above all in Sakon Nakhon.[4]: 2

The line came from seed declared under the 2019 amnesty and received by the university's Sakon Nakhon campus on 15 May 2019. The applicants chose seed whose size, shape and markings matched the informants' accounts of hang kra rog seed, and grew three generations at the campus's Faculty of Natural Resources under a licence to produce a category 5 narcotic: 120 plants from seed sown on 30 June 2019, 125 from 18 November 2019 and 120 in 2020. In each generation the male plants were removed, and 20 female plants were chosen, parts of their flower heads bagged against cross-pollination and their seed kept for the next generation. The share of plants that matched the description rose from 75.0 per cent in the first generation to 91.67 per cent in the third.[4]: 2–7

Mean THC in the flowers rose from 3.92 per cent by weight in the first generation to 7.76 per cent in the third, and mean CBD from 4.78 to 7.32 per cent; over the three generations the means were 6.06 per cent THC and 6.54 per cent CBD, a ratio of about 1:1, which places the line in chemotype 2.[4]: 3–7 Compared with the Kannapedia database at the genes for THC and CBD synthesis, the applicants rated the line rare and found only locally, with low heterozygosity at those genes.[4]: 2–3

The Department of Agriculture published the application in July 2021.[4] In May 2021 the Department of Medical Sciences listed it as one of four Thai cultivars it was developing with the university and Mahidol University, and classed it as type II, with THC and CBD in equal proportion.[12] By January 2022 it was among the five cannabis cultivars that held the Department of Agriculture's certificates of registration.[2] The genome study of 2025 names the five: Issara 01, Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan ST1, Hang Suea Sakonnakhon TT1, Tanao Si Kan Khaw WA1 and Tanao Si Kan Dang RD1.[6] In August 2022 the director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences said that its seed and cuttings of the registered Thai lines were held for research and were not sold or distributed.[15]

Medical use since 2019

Thailand amended its narcotics law in February 2019 to allow the medical use of cannabis.[16] In March 2019 the director of the Thai Traditional Medicine Institute said that the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine had turned to Sakon Nakhon because old medical texts named a quality cannabis there called hang kra rog. He announced a plan to grow about 1,400 rai of it with the Sakon Nakhon campuses of Kasetsart University and Rajamangala University of Technology Isan, for medicines to be made at Phra Ajarn Fan Ajaro Hospital.[1] In December 2019 the Rajamangala campus, licensed to grow cannabis for research and Thai traditional medicine, was working to improve the hang suea and hang kra rog lines; its harvest went to the hospital, which dispensed its cannabis medicines through a "hang kra rog clinic".[17] Komchadluek reported in January 2020 that the clinic took its name from Sakon Nakhon's local types, hang kra rog and hang suea.[18]

In March 2021 the Sakon Nakhon Provincial Administrative Organisation, the Rajamangala campus and a group of companies signed an agreement, reported by Naewna, to develop Phu Phan hang kra rog cannabis for medicine and health food.[11] The plants sampled for the 2025 genome study came from a cultivation site licensed by the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine; its authors write that the cultivar has long been used in traditional Thai medicine.[6]

Chemistry and genetics

The registered line is chemotype 2, with THC and CBD in about equal amounts.[4]: 3 The authors of a 2023 analysis wrote that most of the cannabis sold on the Thai market was claimed to be Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan, for its high THC. Their analysis of dried flower from 14 sources in 11 regions of Thailand found 7.29 to 12.70 per cent THC and 0.11 to 0.73 per cent CBD: every sample was high in THC relative to CBD, unlike the registered line. Its authors wrote that confirming the breed the sellers claimed would need molecular tests.[7] The authors of the genome study also describe Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan as high in THC.[6] In a 2026 study of plants from accessions held in Bangkok and Sakon Nakhon, which its authors call "different regional adaptations of the same landrace", mean THC in the progeny of each cross ranged from 5.05 to 6.58 per cent, and CBD stayed between 0 and 0.22 per cent.[8]: 2–3

The 2025 genome study sequenced three plants and found them closest, among 21 other cannabis genomes from a public database, to the CBD-dominant cultivar "CBD Shark"; its authors describe a distinct lineage among high-THC cultivars.[6] An ISSR study of 50 samples found 91.1 per cent similarity between samples it calls "Sakon Nakhon Hang Krarok Phu Phan" and "Hang Krarok Kiew".[9]: 69–70

Hang suea

Hang suea (หางเสือ) is the name of a second Thai type of cannabis, found in Sakon Nakhon alongside hang kra rog. A line of it, Hang Suea Sakon Nakhon TT1, is one of the five registered cultivars;[6] the same applicants selected it in the same way, from seed of the same 2019 amnesty declaration.[4]: 12–15 The applicants wrote that hang suea is found widely in Thailand, especially in the north and north-east, and gathered information on it from folk doctors in Sakon Nakhon and on the Phu Phan range, in the north and in the west around Tak. Their informants described long inflorescences hanging in long clusters "like a hang suea" (คล้ายหางเสือ), with a scent like orange peel and slightly pungent.[4]: 12[12] The plants kept in the selection were 3.5 to 4.5 metres tall, with a canopy 80 to 100 centimetres across and small cylindrical flower clusters at the branch tips, with smaller clusters spaced along the branch.[4]: 13–14

In hang suea, the Kasetsart taxonomist said, the small flowers are set close together but in separate clumps along the stalk, packed tight only at the tip, and smell of lemon.[13] In a fertiliser trial at the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research, published in 2025, hang suea had small, slender, elongated inflorescences in long bunches on a tall upright plant, against the large, dense, triangular bunches of hang kra rog.[19]: 60

The registered hang suea line is chemotype 1: over its three generations mean THC was 5.03 per cent and mean CBD 0.01 per cent.[4]: 13 The applicants rated it rare.[4]: 13 In 2019 a vice-president of the National Farmers Council called hang kra rog, foi thong and hang suea folk types of the Phu Phan range.[20] In November 2009 the governor of Mukdahan led a raid on Phu Kai Khia in Dong Luang that cut 5,843 plants in 46 plots, of two types, hang suea and nok khum.[21]

Seed sold under the name

Seed is sold under the name. The SeedFinder database lists four Hangkrarok selections under Prempavee Thai Landraces, whose description presents Prempavee as an organic farmer from Isan. It says that her farm lies in the area that was the largest producer of Thai stick in the 1960s and 1970s, that the landraces used to make Thai sticks are still kept by more than 2,000 farmers, and that the most common of them is "Hang Krarork", which the description translates as "Squirrel Tail".[22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "กรมแพทย์แผนไทยฯประกาศผลิต 16 ตำรับยากัญชาไทยเสร็จ ก.ค.นี้ ใช้รักษาคนไข้ไม่คิดเงิน!!" [Department of Thai Traditional Medicine to finish producing 16 Thai cannabis formulas by July, for patients free of charge]. Matichon (in ไทย). 7 March 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "งัด กฎหมาย ปิดทางนำเข้า 'กัญชา-กัญชง' เมล็ดพันธุ์ ช่อดอก เสรี" [Law invoked to close free import of cannabis and hemp seed and flowers]. Thansettakij (in ไทย). 27 January 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Pongnaratorn, Panicha; Sophon, Natthida; Boueroy, Parichart (March 2025). "In vitro antimicrobial activity of Thai stick cannabis Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan (Cannabis sativa L.), sugar leaves extract against pathogenic bacteria". Journal of Advanced Veterinary and Animal Research. 12 (1): 44–52. doi:10.5455/javar.2025.l870.
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 Department of Agriculture (Thailand) (July 2021). ประกาศกรมวิชาการเกษตร เรื่อง โฆษณาคำขอให้ออกหนังสือรับรองพันธุ์พืชขึ้นทะเบียน ตามพระราชบัญญัติพันธุ์พืช พ.ศ. ๒๕๑๘ [Notification of the Department of Agriculture: publication of applications for certificates of registered plant varieties under the Plant Varieties Act B.E. 2518] (PDF) (Report) (in ไทย). Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Hongsuwan, Noppadol; Intaket, Rattana; Khotsombat, Athitaya; Thapseekaeo, Butsaraporn (2022). "ภูมิปัญญาการวิเคราะห์คุณลักษณะภายนอกเพื่อบ่งชี้เพศของต้นกัญชา ในพื้นที่เขตจังหวัดสกลนคร" [The wisdom of analyzing external attributes to determine the sex of the cannabis plant in the area of Sakon Nakhon Province]. Udon Thani Rajabhat University Journal of Sciences and Technology (in ไทย). 10 (1): 27–44.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Kamoltham, Thavatchai; Luangpirom, Nophadon; Kuamsab, Napaporn; Kummalue, Tanawan; Chaiphongpachara, Tanawat (October 2025). "Whole-genome sequencing and SNP analysis of Thai Cannabis sativa cultivar 'Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan' (Cannabaceae)". Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity. 26 (10): 4946–4953. doi:10.13057/biodiv/d261010.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Charoenchai, Laksana; Monton, Chaowalit; Wunnakup, Thaniya; Madaka, Famera; Wutthipong, Artimond; Songsak, Thanapat (2023). "TLC densitometry analysis of cannabis flower growing in Thailand". Interprofessional Journal of Health Sciences. 21 (1–2) IJHS-0256.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Srikul, Pichsiri; Mayong, Amonrat; Matthayatthaworn, Weerachai; Sreewongchai, Tanee (2026). "Comparison of self-pollination and intercrossing for feminized seed production in Thai Hang Kra Rok cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) landrace". Agriculture and Natural Resources. 60 (5) 600512. doi:10.34044/j.anres.2026.60.5.12.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kraisittipanit, Rungroj; Jaiharn, Orawan; Fungnumcharoensab, Kritsada; et al. (September 2025). "Unraveling the genetic diversity of local Thai Cannabis strains using Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) molecular markers". Journal of Medical Globalization. 4 (3): 62–72.
  10. ↑ "สกลนครโมเดล เตรียมจัดงานเมืองแห่งกัญชาโลก" [Sakon Nakhon Model prepares a world cannabis city event]. Komchadluek (in ไทย). 25 March 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 "สกลฯขับเคลื่อนเมืองกัญชาหางกระรอกทางการแพทย์ ต่อยอดสู่อาหารเพื่อสุขภาพ" [Sakon Nakhon drives a medical hang kra rog cannabis city, extending to health food]. Naewna (in ไทย). 5 March 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "กรมวิทย์ฯ-มทร.อีสาน-ม.มหิดล ร่วมพัฒนากัญชา 4 สายพันธุ์ไทยเพื่อใช้ทางการแพทย์" [Department of Medical Sciences, Rajamangala University of Technology Isan and Mahidol University develop four Thai cannabis cultivars for medical use]. InfoQuest (in ไทย). 6 May 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 "ม.เกษตร สกลฯ เก็บเกี่ยวดอกกัญชา ล็อตแรก เผยคุณภาพดี พร้อมนำไปผลิตยาแผนไทย 7 ตำรับ" [Kasetsart Sakon Nakhon harvests its first lot of cannabis flowers, of good quality, for seven Thai-medicine formulae]. Sentang Sedtee (in ไทย). 28 December 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
  14. ↑ "สกลนครลุยตัดทำลายแปลงกัญชาผิดกฎหมายบนเขาภูพาน" [Sakon Nakhon cuts down illegal cannabis plots on the Phu Phan]. Post Today (in ไทย). 18 November 2020. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  15. ↑ "เตือนอย่าหลงเชื่อ! ขาย "เมล็ดพันธุ์กัญชา" อ้างขึ้นทะเบียนกรมวิทย์ฯ" [Warning: cannabis seed sold with false claims of registration by the Department of Medical Sciences]. Thai PBS (in ไทย). 30 August 2022. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  16. ↑ "โปรดเกล้าฯ พ.ร.บ.ยาเสพติด ใช้ 'กัญชา-กระท่อม' ทางการแพทย์ได้" [Royal assent to the narcotics act: cannabis and kratom may be used in medicine]. Thai PBS (in ไทย). 19 February 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2026.
  17. ↑ "ป.ป.ส.ตรวจระบบควบคุมแปลงปลูกกัญชาทำยา และระบบคัดกรองผู้ป่วยรับยา จ.สกลนคร" [Narcotics office inspects the controls on the medical cannabis plots and the patient screening system in Sakon Nakhon]. Thai PBS (in ไทย). 19 December 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  18. ↑ "หางกระรอก กัญชาสายพันธุ์ไทย จากพืชเสพติดสู่ยารักษาโรค" [Hang kra rog, a Thai cannabis line: from narcotic plant to medicine]. Komchadluek (in ไทย). 1 January 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
  19. ↑ Dechlay, Patcharee; Piriyaphattarakit, Anan; Ruplort, Ponkamon (2025). "อิทธิพลของปุ๋ยเคมีต่อการเจริญเติบโตของกัญชาพันธุ์หางเสือและหางกระรอกภูพาน" [The effect of chemical fertilizer on growth of Cannabis sativa L. Hang Suea and Hang Kra Rog Phu Phan]. Wichcha Journal Nakhon Si Thammarat Rajabhat University (in ไทย). 44 (1): 52–63. doi:10.65217/wichchajnstru.2025.v44i1.256853.
  20. ↑ "สภาเกษตรกรฯ จัดเวทีกัญชาที่สกลนคร ถิ่นกัญชาดีที่สุดในโลก" [The Farmers Council holds a cannabis forum in Sakon Nakhon] (Press release) (in ไทย). National Farmers Council. 1 April 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
  21. ↑ "ผู้ว่าฯ มุกดาหารนำทีมบุกเผาทำลายกัญชา บนภูไก่เขี่ย มูลค่ากว่า 2 ล้าน" [Mukdahan governor leads a team to burn cannabis on Phu Kai Khia, worth over 2 million baht]. MGR Online (in ไทย). 10 November 2009. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
  22. ↑ "Prempavee Thai Landraces". SeedFinder. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
Retrieved from "https://landrace.wiki/index.php?title=Hang_kra_rog&oldid=32120"