What Does Pot Look Like?

The cannabis plant is a flowering herb most easily recognized by its signature leaves.  The leaves consist of 1-13 serrated leaflets that differ in shape and size depending on the type of the cannabis plant.  Sativa plants are a vibrant green colour and tend to grow taller with more narrow leaflets.  Indica plants are generally more short and stout, with darker green, broad leaflets.  Marijuana plants can range in height anywhere from less than a foot if grown indoors in a controlled environment to well over ten feet high when grown outside.

Weed is the dried plant material that comes from the cannabis plant.  Weed is made up of small buds that are derived from the flowering female cannabis plant.  Bud is usually oblong- or cone-shaped and greenish-brown in colour.  When it is ground up, it may resemble dried herbs like parsley or oregano.

You may also see orange hairs tangled throughout the bud.  These are called pistils and are involved with the pollination of the plant.  Pistils do not produce cannabinoids and are not related to the strength of the marijuana strain.  In addition to the pistils, weed is also covered in a network of small hairs called trichomes.  The trichomes look like small crystals shimmering on the surface of the bud, and these structures produce the cannabinoids of interest: THC and CBD.

Depending on the particular strain of weed, bud can vary widely in appearance in terms of colour, size, and density.  A number of strains have been bred to have a specific genetic profile that enhances their anthocyanin (pigment) production.  Some strains are also grown under specific conditions to bring out different colour profiles.  As a result, you can find bud in different hues of purple, blue, pink, yellow, and orange.  In addition to colour differences, some strains will produce longer, thinner, and wispy bud, while others will produce short, stubby and densely packed bud.  The amount of crystals and pistils present also vary depending on the particular strain.