La negra
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| Kind of name | Local name |
|---|---|
| Also called | Negra Silvia purple |
| Language | Spanish |
| Meaning | black |
| Refers to | A highland marijuana of Silvia, Cauca, in the 1970s; a grade of the Sierra Nevada export trade |
| Country | Colombia |
|---|---|
| Places | Silvia, Cauca |
| First recorded | 1976[1]: 47 |
La negra, or negra, is a Colombian name for marijuana. The anthropologist Anthony Henman found a highland marijuana known in Spanish as la negra on sale at Silvia, in Cauca, in 1974, when "los gringos" called it Silvia purple; the names referred to the plant turning purple and black as it dried.[2]: 280 A 1976 agronomy thesis from Santa Marta gives negra and mona as the popular names of two varieties,[1]: 47 and in the export trade of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta negra was one of the lower grades.[3]: ch. 3
Silvia, 1974
Henman wrote that attempts to grow cannabis above 2,000 metres in the region were hampered by low night temperatures. At Silvia in 1974 "había disponible una cierta cantidad de esta marihuana de tierras altas, que se conocía en español como la negra, mientras los gringos le decían Silvia purple". The local plant was grown at about 2,500 metres, and its colour changed so that "sus tintes se tornaban púrpuras y negros con el secado". Henman reported that its cannabinoid content was markedly lower than that of the average lowland plant, and that its effect lacked the trembling and palpitations that came with punto rojo.[2]: 280
A variety and a grade on the coast
Ceballos's 1976 thesis at the Universidad Tecnológica del Magdalena used seed lots of the variety Negra and the variety Mona in trials on storage moulds, and recorded fungal attack on both.[1]: 44–47
Lina Britto lists negra (black) among the grades into which buyers in the Sierra sorted the export crop, all of which were exported. Britto writes that the grades "resulted not from species differentiation or genetic modification but from environmental conditions and cultivation methods".[3]: ch. 3
| Grade | Britto's English gloss |
|---|---|
| gold | (the best grade: "only flowers, no leaves") |
| concha de coco | coco shell |
| mango biche | green mango |
| rayada | striped |
| negra | black |
| cafuche | residue |
Later uses
In a 2009 forum thread on landraces from Cali, a poster wrote that punto rojo and mangobiche grew around Corinto and that "La Negra can grow in south".[4] A poster writing from Colombia in 2018 listed "black weed (from the Caldas and Llanos regions)" beside the gold of Santa Marta, the brown of Corinto and the green of Mangobiche.[5] In United States grower forums a dark Colombian marijuana goes by the English name Colombian Black.[6]
Colour names
| Name | Earliest dated source | What the name is applied to |
|---|---|---|
| mona, amarilla | 1976 | a variety called by its popular name, beside negra, in a Santa Marta agronomy thesis[1]: 47; the Santa Marta gold type (Henman; Herrera Fernández)[2]: 275[7]: 304; a paler and stronger type grown higher in the Sierra (Time, "Mona (blond)")[8]; one of "dos variedades" of Colombian marijuana (Semana)[9] |
| punto rojo, Red Point | 1978 | a Cauca type (Henman)[2]: 276; a stronger, resinous type on the Caribbean coast (Herrera Fernández)[7]: 304 |
| la roja de Santa Marta, Santa Marta red | 1978 | one of Henman's four trade types, set beside Panama red[2]: 276 |
| mango viche, mango biche | 1978 | "Llanos green y Cauca green" (Henman)[2]: 276; an export grade, glossed "green mango" (Britto)[3]: ch. 3 |
| la morada | 1973 | a female plant near Aracataca, on the herbarium sheet HUA 534[10] |
| la blanca | 1973 | another female plant gathered the same day, on the sheet HUA 537[11] |
| negra | 1976 | a variety in the 1976 thesis[1]: 47; a highland type at Silvia, Cauca, in 1974 (Henman)[2]: 280; an export grade, glossed "black" (Britto)[3]: ch. 3 |
| Mona Cielo Azul, Blue Sky Blond | 1979 | a pale plant from the Cielo Azul heights, said to be a hybrid made with seed from Thailand (Time)[8] |
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Ceballos C., Aníbal S. (1976). Algunos aspectos del cultivo de la marihuana (Cannabis sativa L.) (Tesis de grado (Ingeniero Agrónomo)). Santa Marta: Universidad Tecnológica del Magdalena. hdl:20.500.14923/2103.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Henman, Anthony (2019) [1978]. Mama coca (in español). Translated by Gabriel Iriarte; preface by Wade Davis (8th ed.). Popayán: Editorial Universidad del Cauca. ISBN 978-958-732-345-0.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Britto, Lina (2020). Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia's First Drug Paradise. Oakland: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-32547-0.
- ↑ "Colombian Landrace from Cali". International Cannagraphic Magazine. 19 December 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "Most potent best effect landraces – wtf did I just smoke". Overgrow. 28 January 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "Colombian Black and Gold". THCFarmer. 13 January 2010. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Cervantes Angulo, José (1980). La noche de las luciérnagas (in español). Bogotá: Plaza & Janés.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The Colombian Connection". Time. 29 January 1979. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "Bonanza marimbera, adios!". Semana (in español). 1 November 1982. Retrieved 30 October 2026.
- ↑ "Occurrence 931007696: Cannabis sativa L." GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 2 November 2026.
- ↑ "Occurrence 931007851: Cannabis sativa L." GBIF. Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 2 November 2026.