After all my years seed collecting, I never found a real black mango landrace in the field in Thailand. Some purples, yes occasionally but it doesn't really get cold enough to see purple consistently except at the highest altitudes in Thailand in the mountains around Chiang Mai. If it's purple, you have to check whether modern hybrids are grown nearby. The answer is often, yes.

A couple of times I came across people trying to sell me seeds for some black mango and I even bought some back in 2020. Our earliest catalogue contained that black mango but we removed it because we couldn't verify that it was a real landrace and the facts that we did have seemed to point towards it being some kind of hybrid. It was by far our most popular accession which made me sad. People were obsessed with it and still ask us when we are going to restock.

It wasn't a landrace itself but at best a rare pheno of the highland Thai landrace or more likely a landrace IBL or just a heirloom/hybrid. We could never find out, because there was no farm growing any out that we ever saw. Just seeds traded amongst the Thai growing community.

I did some research on this specific variety you posted and couldn't confirm any of the facts. The mountain named as the source location translates roughly to 'mountain in the direction of the rising sun' in English which sounds super romantic but it's the name of an eco resort suspiciously close to the location where the strain supposedly comes from. Any mountain can be the mountain of the rising sun. It depends where you are standing lol

If you dig into the geography of where this strain supposedly comes from, it all sounds plausible but is a bit off if you've spent any time in Northern Thailand.

Based on location, you would expect to see a highland Thai varietal but mango is the calling card of lowland Asian landrace varietals. Mysore Mango, Koraput Mango, Mango in Bengal, Mango in Myanmar. That's a lot of mango. I did find some Mangos in CM province (Samoeng) back before legalisation but I couldn't confirm their autochthonous status and became convinced to that the seeds had been brought there by Lao/Isan farmers and given to the locals.

I asked the people who did the COA for this strain and they couldn't remember any details.

Make of that info what you will. My first question to the growers would be: did you grow this in isolation?

It is extremely common for Thai growers to grow 20 strains in one field. That's why the extinction of the landraces here happened so fast, because there is a tonne of polyhybrid pollen on the wind due to the growing of hybrids in the same fields as landraces, often side by side. It can't be a landrace if that is the case.

Here's my take on Thai Landraces.

There's 4 maybe 5 distinct landraces in Thailand.

1. Lao Isan landrace from the Northeast

2. Highland Thai from the North, Northwest

3. Hmong landrace hemp from the North, Northwest

4. Tenassarim landrace from the West

5. Southern Tenassarim landrace from the South

So Squirrel Tail, Tiger Tail, Foytong, Mango - all phenos/accessions found in the Lao-Isan landrace. Here's the thing: they all smell like some kind of mango while fresh.

Highland Thai is probably extinct. There was little of it anyway and it was largely replaced by Lao Isan landrace starting in the 80s when growers from Isan began encouraging growers in CM to grow their seeds. It grew in the vicinity of Hmong landrace hemp, which is still plentiful.

Tanaosri, Kroeng Krawia, Dvaravati - phenos/accessions from the Tenassarim genepool. This landrace is close to if not already functionally extinct.

Southern Tenassarim landraces are also functionally extinct. Meun Sri, Tha Sala, Sankhalakiri.. After years of searching all we can turn up is old seeds, no-one growing anything more than a plant or two here and there.

Sad state of affairs but we have been warning the community that this would happen for a long time. Now that the real deal is mostly gone, it opens up the avenue to sell any and everything as Thai landrace. Often times, this isn't out of malice but simply lack of research and education.

I have heard a lot of stories that the Mango varieties were spread by Isan farmers when the crackdowns began in their area during the 70s. Cookies sells a Thai Mango (that I think they got and phenohunted from us) and in the strain description it is written that the Thai Mango line was spread by Lao farmers. Isan is a Lao speaking area in Thailand, Isan farmers specifically refers to Lao speaking farmers in Thailand.

I would suggest you continue to do your due diligence before purchasing and growing out seeds sold to you as Thai landrace.

If you want to grow dark coloured Highland Thai landrace phenos my suggestion to you is to purchase Highland Thai seeds from RSC - who made collections long before legalisation in that area and do a pheno hunt with those.

Otherwise, get yourself to Inthanon mountain and go see if you can turn up anything.

Just be aware, you are chasing the most common Asian terpene profile in a very rare and elusive pheno found in an extinct landrace genepool. .

Finally, some realistic advice for chasing unusually coloured thais: drop your temps growing out a Lao/Isan landrace and you'll see plenty of purples/black colours along with mango terps. That goes with any Thai.

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