@Dirt_Wizard 's got it just about right. Jim Ortega is an early cannabis pioneer from Oakland, California that traded with Nevil on the same trip to the US that Nevil made to acquire the Northern Lights strains in Seattle. Jim, who apparently was more of a collector than a breeder, passed several Afghani and Pakistani landrace strains to Nevil, including those later released by The Seedbank as Maple Leaf, Kush 4, and Garlic Bud.
Jim told Nevil the Maple Leaf was bred by a certain Maple Leaf Wilson, called maple leaf due to the fat leaflets characteristic of the strain. It’s been suggested that Maple Leaf Wilson was actually Jim, seeking to put some distance between his cultivation activities and his dealings with Nevil. Nevil later changed the name of the strain simply to Ortega.
Ortega became a foundational breeding strain for Nevil and later Sensi Seeds, which released at least two hybrids, Black Domina and Maple Leaf Indica, employing the strain. The strain is pure C. Sativa “Afghanica”, liberated from the Mazar-i-Sharif area of Afghanistan prior to the Soviet invasion in the early 90s.
In the late 90s some of Nevil’s original cache of Ortega seeds, stored in a freezer in Amsterdam, came into Ed Rosenthal’s hands, as payment on an old debt. Ed passed them on to Red at Legends Seedbank, who sent them on to me. Ed used them in a collab with Breeder Steve to produce what I believe was Spice of Life’s last hybrid release, Legends Ultimate Indica (LUI), which was Ortega x Sweet Tooth. Shantababa also received some of the same seedlot and crossed them with Northern Lights 1 to create a version of Ortega sold by Mr. Nice.