What exactly is a landrace?

Hi everyone, I have a question.  What exactly is a landrace? How do you define it?  

Is it essentially a mixed bag of genetics from a local population? I’m sure Carol Deppe defined it as a breeding population with certain characteristics specific to a local area, but I can’t imagine what that means too well. If I grew and interbred a load of different types of kale for example, and selected for the ones that worked best in my area, would that then be a landrace?

Thanks in advance for your help in educating me xx

To me a landrace is just another way of saying a cultivar. Alot of cultivars actually state the land they come from such as, Florida King, or Chicargo Hardy, Desert Queen. The good news is that you don't need a PhD, neither do you need to get a patent have your own cultivar.

I wouldn't call the 1st generation F1hybrids or even the 4th generation a landrace but by the 7th generation it will be stable and I would call it a stabilized landrace/cultivar. So you might be wondering what would make your landrace-cultivar different from a commercial cultivar. They usual select for uniform looks and ripening time, and how well it works with artificial fertilizer. But you could select for how well in survive with your rainfall or pest or high calcium soil, or bitter/sweet taste preference, or maybe you only want to save fruits/pods that are purple vs yellow, or maybe it is one that ripens over 60days vs just in a tight 7day window.

You don't have to limit a landrace to just plants. You could make your own chicken cultivar too, selecting for how well they forage, lay eggs/put on meat, survive predators, survive the winter with no heat/etc. This is would pretty much work for any animal.  

My definition of landrace, is a plant or animal population that is genetically diverse, promiscuously interbreeding, and has undergone enough generations of survival of the fittest selection, in one location, that it has become locally adapted.

Thank you S Bengi and Joseph Lofthouse 😊 I’ve been doing some research in the meantime and different people seem to have slightly different ideas of what a landrace is. I’ve seen some people say they don’t water, fertilise or intervene in any way at all and then I’ve seen others who cull everything that has a trait they don’t like ( I’m not sure if that was you, Joseph.) Either way, they all seem to agree that it is an interbreeding population with a diverse genetic base which is locally adapted.

The whole landrace thing sounds very appealing to me. It’s fascinating reading about all the different things people want to breed for.

I don't get too caught up in what exactly  to call something but I do have a few species around my yard and garden that I think meet most or all definitions of landrace.

I have a nice population of a spring flower called Dame's Rocket that I collected all around my area and selected for range of color and been at it for 20 years so I'd say it is a local landrace. Also have done that with Wild Columbine (crossed with tame varieties several years back), Virginia Blue bells and other locally sourced wild flowers, including my favorite Wild Asters.

In my garden I have, turnips, radish, dill, marigolds, onions, and dahlias that have adapted to the point of becoming basically wild.  I've been haphazardly breeding sweet potatoes for nearly 10 years and even they have adapted to the point they volunteer from seed so I reckon I can include them as well. Then my pole variety dry bean collection has been crossing and selecting for that long as well so guess I can include it too.

I don't know that something has to reach the point of growing volunteer to be considered a landrace, I just like it when they get to that point. Maybe I should find or make up an appropriate term for that.  

OMG Mark, I love your wild asters. 🥰

I guess letting things get to the point where they will readily self seed and volunteer is great from the point of view that your seeds are robust enough to grow themselves without having to be babysat by you. If you didn’t like weeding out all the volunteers, I guess you might feel differently, but I’m personally a fan of this robustness.

I didn’t know you could grow sweet potatoes from actual seed though. I’ve only ever seen the tubers at the supermarket, or the slips/plants at garden centres. I’m all intrigued now. I’ve just successfully grown regular potatoes from true seed this year. From the colouration I’m guessing a cross between Mayan Gold and Highland Burgundy, but I hear that with quadriploid (is that the right word?) potatoes that there’s a tonne of variation even if it selfs, so it may also be a self.