OG has two meanings. In general slang it means original, veteran or authentic. In cannabis naming it refers to a family of influential clone-only cultivars that emerged in the 1990s and became the parents of a huge share of modern lines.
In practice
The origin of the OG family is disputed, including what the letters stand for; stories conflict and documentation is thin. Many cuts circulate under OG names, some genuinely related, some not, and "OG" is attached to new crosses as a marketing tag. Treat any specific OG lineage claim as low-evidence unless there is a documented chain of custody or DNA match.
Don't confuse with
- Kush: a broader name tied to Hindu Kush landrace material; OGs are often grouped with kush but the relationship is a claim.
- Original cut: a claim about one specific clone, not a property of the name.
Myth check
"Everything with OG in the name is related." Names are unreliable as genetic evidence (Sawler et al. 2015). See why strain names are unreliable.
A clone-only is a cultivar that exists only as cuttings from one original plant, with no seed line that reliably reproduces it.Kush is a generic name for cannabis tied to landrace material from the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and now for its many hybrid descendants.A landrace is a traditional, locally adapted cannabis population kept by farmers in one region over many generations, with its own type and plenty of internal variation.An elite cut is a famous, proven clone-only plant, often held by a few growers and traded rather than sold openly.A renamed cut is a known clone sold or shared under a new name, so one genotype circulates under many labels and lineage records get muddied.
