You’ve probably heard that there are both male and female cannabis plants. It’s really only the female plant – the one that produces the high most people are looking for – that we’re concerned with here!
The “bud” that you want to smoke is the flower of the female plant – containing the most cannabinoids it is the part harvested for smoking.
While the fan leaves are the most recognizable – the ones you see on tshirts and college dorm posters – the actually only produce very little cannabinoids – though many are now using them fresh in smoothies and other health foods.
If you’ve ever heard the term “cola” in a cannabis context and wondered what it meant, a cola is a bunch of buds clustered together on the plant, growing so closely that they look like one giant bud.
The trichomes that you can view when looking at the plant with a magnifying glass are where the resin, THC, CBD and terpenes come from.