If you've ever picked up a juicy bud and wondered, "What gives weed its flavour…
Cannabis Plant’s Anatomy!
Oh the mighty marijuana plant! Arguably the most beautiful specimen in its biological kingdom. But knowing every part of your cannabis plant’s anatomy is trick!
Luckily for you, we’re about to educate you about all the parts of this amazing plant!
But first let’s talk about plant gender.
Dagga Gender
Marijuana is a dioecious plant. This means it can be male or female. Both genders have their own set flowers, or reproductive organs.
It might not come as a surprise, but the gender cannabis growers are looking for is female.
Female plants produce flowers that are resin-secreting, while males produce pollen sacs near the base of the leaves. When the male’s pollen meets the female’s resin soaked flower they produce seeds.
We’ve included a snapshot of a male plant above as you’re unlikely to encountered one if you purchase seeds from our bank. This is due to the fact we stock seeds with good genetics and are breed from seedless female plants. These are called sinsemilla – or seedless.
But the anatomy lesson you’ll be more interested in is the female.
Female Cannabis Plant’s Anatomy
The female cannabis plant’s flower is beautifully complex. And is made up of a number of parts.
Let’s start with the Cola.
Cola
A cola is the cluster of buds that grow tightly together. Smaller colas can pop up lower down on the plant. But the main cola is at the top. Sometimes they are called apical buds.
Stigma and pistil
Pistils contain the reproductive parts of the flower, and are the colourful, hair-like strands. In the image above, they appear whiteish.
Their natural duty is to collect pollen from male plants. Stigmas of the pistil normally start out white, and over time, they gain their colour as the plant matures.
While stigmas bring wonderful hues and colours to your bud, they do very little for the overall potency and taste.
Bract and calyx
The bract is what encapsulates the female’s reproductive parts. They look like tear-shaped leaves on the flower and are usual covered in resin glands.
These glands are responsible for producing the highest concentration of cannabinoids on the plant.
Inside these bracts, which you can’t see with your eyes, is the calyx. The calyx is a translucent layer over the ovule at the base of the flower.
Trichomes
Trichomes are tiny in size, but it is hard to miss them. They are the blanketed layer of crystal resin on the bud.
This resin is secreted by a translucent, mushroom-shaped, glands on the leaves, stems, and calyxes.
In nature these trichomes were evolved to protect the plant’s flower from predators and general elements. Also, these little globules also put off an aromatic oil called terpenes as well as the best known cannabinoids, THC and CBD.
Concluding the Cannabis Plant’s Anatomy Lesson!
And, just like that, you know the very basics of the cannabis plant’s anatomy!
There are other lessons about hermaphrodite cannabis, but we’ll save that for another day.
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