to set up an international police apparatus.
—William S. Burroughs in Drugstore Cowboy
Excellence is attained by those who care more than others think is wise, who risk more than others think is safe, and who dream more than others think is practical.
—Bud Greenspan
Purple and green bracts.
Photo: Samson Daniels
by Mel Frank
Over the years, authors have used a multitude of names to describe the same parts of the marijuana plant. This inconsistency has led to some confusion, and authors’ incorrect use of botanical terms has further muddied discussions. Most of the confusion centers on female flowers, which are the focus of most marijuana growing discussions. In this book, the author, K from Trichome Technologies, strived to be accurate and botanically correct when naming specific plant parts. I hope his effort will encourage consistent use of correct terminology.
Botanists and horticulturalists, speaking generally, correctly use the term bud to mean any newly emerging plant part as it first appears as no more than a nub or protuberance, whether it will become a branch, flower, or leaf. However, for those entirely new to marijuana discussions, the term bud commonly refers to a distinct cluster of female marijuana flowers. This is so universally ingrained in marijuana usage by consumers and growers alike that bud is used here also. Botanically, marijuana buds are racemes.
Female flowers usually form in pairs that are so tightly bunched together with succeeding pairs that such pairing is apparent only in “running” buds most commonly seen in Southeast Asian cultivars. Much more typically, female flowers grow closely together, forming compact, egg-shaped or teardrop-shaped clusters, typically about one to two inches long, consisting of dozens of densely packed individual flowers. The oldest flowers are found at the bud’s base and the youngest at the top.
Female flowers growing together, forming a compact cluster.
Photo: Mel Frank
As the lifecycle of the plant ends, many colors can appear, such as purple bracts and sometimes even colored stigmata, i.e. purple and pink/red.
Photo: K
This MK Ultra × Sensi Star has a dense cola.
Photo: Mel Frank
More so than the stigma, the ripeness of the resin gland ultimately determines when to harvest.
Photo: Samson Daniels
Cola, another commonly used term for female flower clusters, more often refers to an aggregate of buds that, having formed so closely together, looks like a single, very large bud. Colas form at the ends of stems and branches and can be well over a foot long. Foxtail is another name for cola, but the term is rarely used these days except by those whose history with marijuana goes back to the 1960s or 70s.
Those general terms—bud, cola, foxtail—are easy enough and universally accepted, but when discussing specific plant parts with botanical terms, confusion reigns. Foremost is the incorrect use of either calyx or false calyx. Growers read or hear about swollen calyxes being a sign of maturity and an indication of readiness for harvesting. What are incorrectly called calyxes or false calyxes are correctly identified as bracts.
Cannabis flowers do have a calyx, which few growers have ever recognized since it is barely perceptible without a microscope. The cannabis calyx is one part of the perianth, a nearly transparent, delicate tissue that partially encloses the ovule (prospective seed). Each female flower has a single ovule enclosed in its perianth, which is encapsulated by bracteoles, which are covered by a whorl of bracts. The bracts and bracteoles are small, modified leaves that enclose and protect the seed in what some growers refer to as the seed pod. The bracts, with their dense covering of large resin glands, contain the highest concentration of THC of any plant part. Bracts make up most of the substance and weight of quality marijuana buds.
A clean, well-organized cannabis grow operation in the vegetative stage.
Photo: Mel Frank
By definition, a perianth consists of a corolla and a calyx. In more familiar showy flowers, the corolla is the brightly colored petals we generally appreciate when looking at flowers, and the calyx is the smaller green cup (sepals) at the flower’s base. Bright showy colors, large flower sizes, and enticing fragrances evolved to attract insects such as bees and flies, or animals such as birds and bats to collect and transfer pollen to other flowers. Cannabis flowers are not brightly colored, large, or enticingly fragrant (at least to most non-humans); marijuana plants are wind-pollinated with no need to attract insects or animals to carry the males’ pollen to female flowers.
The marijuana perianth is only about six cells thick, so to distinguish calyx cells from corolla cells is best left to botanists with high-powered microscopes. This book uses the correct term, bracts, for the green or purple, resin-gland studded, specialized “leaves” encasing each female flower—not pod, not calyx, and certainly not false calyx.
Each female marijuana flower has two stigmas that protrude through the bracts from a single ovule; they are “fuzzy” (hirsute), about ¼ to ½-inch long, usually white, but sometimes yellowish, or pink to red and, very rarely, lavender to purple. Stigmas (stigmata is another botanical plural) are the pollen catchers. Some authors identify stigmas as pistils, and this too is incorrect. The pistil is all of the reproductive female flower parts: two stigmas, a style (tube connecting stigma to ovule), and the ovule. Each flower then has only one pistil but two stigmas. The term is misused in many books and articles that describe a single cannabis flower as having two pistils.
If pollinated, the ovule of each female flower becomes a single fruit (an achene) holding a single seed. The perianth, which includes the calyx, tightly clasps the seed and often contains tannins, which give mature seeds their mottled or speckled coat. Between a thumb and finger you can rub the perianth off of seeds. A well-pollinated single bud develops dozens of seeds, a cola easily holds hundreds, and even a small, but thoroughly pollinated female can bear thousands of seeds.
Male Cannabis Flowers
