Glossary · Plant anatomy
Trichome
The tiny, frosty, mushroom-shaped glands coating cannabis flower where cannabinoids and terpenes are produced. The "sugar" sparkle on good bud is trichomes. Growers watch trichome color through a loupe to judge harvest timing — clear means early, milky means peak, and amber means more sedating effects.
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Related terms, defined
- Bud
- A single cluster of cannabis flower. The word is used interchangeably with "flower" in casual conversation, though bud usually refers to the individual nug while flower describes the category. Dense, well-trimmed, aromatic buds signal careful growing and curing; airy or leafy buds usually mean a rushed crop.
- Kief
- The loose, powdery trichomes that fall off cannabis flower, usually collected in the bottom chamber of a grinder. Kief is essentially raw, unpressed hash and can be sprinkled on a bowl, added to a joint, or pressed into rosin. It is far more potent than the flower it came from.
- Hash
- One of the oldest cannabis concentrates, made by collecting and compressing trichomes into a pliable block. Traditional hash is hand-rubbed or sieved; modern bubble hash uses ice water to separate trichomes. It delivers a fuller, more old-school high than flower and is the raw material for solventless rosin.