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Male flowers.
Male Skunk #1 flower.
Anther pollen slits opening magnified X5.
Anthers empty of pollen.
Forced selfing for feminized seeds on a Grand Daddy Purple plant.
Rogue anthers in buds hold feminized pollen.
Photos: Mel Frank
Female Cannabis Flowers
Stigmas on female plant.
Stigmas on female flower seen from above.
Stigmas beginning to dry out.
Pakistani plant’s stigmas after 4 weeks of flowering.
Stigmas can range from short to long. These are considered long stigmas.
Darkening of the stigmas indicates the onset of maturity.
Cannabis being grown outdoors in Southern California by a collective.
Photo: Mel Frank
The male (staminate) marijuana plant gets less attention, because once gender shows most gardeners remove all males to prevent pollination, so females (pistillates) will remain seedless (commonly called sinsemilla from the Spanish sin semillas meaning without seeds). Male flowers look more like familiar flowers than the female flowers do, and although they are only about ¼ to ½-inch long, thousands can develop on a large male plant. Most of the flowers develop in loose clusters (cymes or cymose panicles) or (very roughly) about ten flowers each, borne on tiny branches and their side (lateral) branches. Each male flower consists of five, usually white or greenish, but often tinged purple, sepals (sometimes identified as tepals) that non-botanists might describe as “petals” and five pendulous stamens that bear pollen in sacks called anthers. Anthers hang by a short, thin, threadlike filament and together, filament and anther make up the stamen. Once mature, two openings on opposite sides of each other open zipper-like, starting at their base, to slowly release their pollen into the wind, carrying it (hopefully) to stigmas. It has been estimated that the thousands of flowers on a single male can release more than 500 million pollen grains.
Unopened male flower clusters remind some growers of tiny grape clusters, and fresh anthers look like tiny bunches of bananas. Here male flowers are simply called male flowers or male flower clusters, and the pollen holders referred to as either stamens or anthers. Hopefully when writers and growers use botanical terms such as calyx, bract, stigma, pistil, anther, and stamen, they will use the terms correctly. The colloquial terms bud and colas are universally used to represent racemes, as pot and grass are used to represent marijuana, and for these, there is no impetus to change.
—Mel Frank
A view of a uniform canopy.
Photo: Mel Frank
The cannabis plant is very diverse and there are many variations. Many people refer to these variations as “strains” and “varieties.” For the purpose of clarification and continuity, I will first define these terms, and then explain why the word “cultivar” has been chosen to be used throughout this book.
Strain: (Biology), variants of plants. This term accounts for variations, but not chemical diversity within species.
Variety: (Botany), see “Plant Variety” below. A taxonomic rank below that of species. (That being stated, variety is improper.)
Plant Variety: (Botany), a taxonomic nomenclature rank in botany, below “subspecies” but above “subvariety” and “form.” (An infraspecific rank, usually a cultivar or hybrid.) “Variety” is an informal, ambiguous, and vague substitute for cultivar or hybrid (Biology). (The term “variety” or “varietal” is improper nomenclature in that it best describes grapes and rice. “Varietal” is not even an official botany term.)
Varietal: for horticultural term, see “cultivar.” “Varietal” is normally used to describe rice and grape varieties. It is the improper nomenclature for cannabis.
Cultivar: A cultivar is a plant or grouping of plants selected for desirable characteristics that can be maintained through propagation. Most cultivars have arisen in cultivation by careful breeding and selection for flower color and form, but a few are special selections from the wild. Similarly, the world’s agricultural food crops are almost exclusively cultivars that have been selected for characteristics such as improved yield, flavor, and resistance to disease. Very few wild plants are now used as food sources. Cultivars form a major part of a broader grouping called “The Cultigen,” which is defined as a plant whose origin or selection is primarily due to intentional human activity. (A cultivar is not the same as botanical variety, and there are differences in the rules for the formation and use of the names of botanical varieties and cultivars.)
All of that being said: for the purposes of continuity, this book will refer to genetic diversities as “cultivars.”
For in depth explanations on these terms, as well as definitions of “chemotype,” “chemovars,” and much more, it is recommended that you read Robert Connell Clarke’s book Marijuana Botany.
