Marijuana dictionary

Cannabis is an ancient plant and, in fact, archaeological studies show that it was being already cultivated around the year 8000 BC. There is a great deal of information on the chronology of this magnificent plant, catalogued by gurus, shamans, doctors, biologists and scientists as a spiritual, medicinal, recreational or industrial plant, as it has many different and varied uses. In this post, we will leave cannabis as a material for the industrial sector (textiles, paper...) aside and focus on explaining the different ways of consuming it.

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Viviparity may be a strange-sounding word, but it actually describes one of the best-known phenomena among mammals (and other species), that of embryos developing inside the mother's body until the moment of birth, at which point they are already prepared to survive in the outside world. This viviparity, which is so familiar to us humans, is not so frequently found in the plant kingdom, where the embryos are released by the mother plant as a seed and will depend exclusively on the environment to develop and grow.

However, viviparity can also occur in some plants and sometimes, the seed that would normally wait to be released begins to grow in the mother's body and emerges to the surface like an alien unleashed. The result? Plants that seem like something from a horror movie but that are, in reality, premature mothers.

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A mutation is a random change in the nucleotide sequence or in the organisation of DNA (genotype) or RNA of a living being, which produces a variation in its characteristics. DNA and RNA are polymers formed by long chains of nucleotides. For the most part, these changes only affect a single nucleotide or a very small DNA region of the billions of nucleotides that make up the genome, but they are responsible for the genetic variability that can be observed in all species. Without mutations, we would all be identical and, most importantly, there would be no possibilities for evolution and adaptation.

Therefore, using the simplest possible terms, mutation refers to ‘errors’ in the genetic code of cannabis which make plants develop differently than expected.

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When it comes to cannabis, the part of the plant that gets all the attention is naturally the bit we're all growing for: the flowers. But while it's easy to be enamoured with the beautiful frosty flowers we shouldn't overlook the rest, because behind the bud there's a whole plant, with all its component parts, each playing an essential role in bringing us our precious harvest.

Here at Alchimiaweb we strongly believe that the more we know about our favourite plants, the more success we'll have cultivating them, and the happier we'll be with the results! For these reasons here we're going to take a closer look at the cannabis plant and identify all the different elements of its anatomy to help you get to know this wonderful plant a little bit better.

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How to differentiate cannabis males and females 

The marijuana plant (cannabis sativa sp.) is a dioecious or unisexual plant, meaning it produces male and female flowers on different plants. However, it can also produce plants that have both sexes in the same individual, plants that we call hermaphrodites or monoecious. As a general rule, plants that produce male flowers are called male plants, while those that produce female flowers are called female plants.

Male cannabis plants flower producing clusters of "bags", which hang downwards and end up opening and releasing pollen, which, transported through the wind, will pollinate the female plants and lead to the formation of seeds in them. For their part, female cannabis plants produce tear-shaped calyxes from which two small hairs emerge, usually white and called pistils, which are grouped together forming what we usually call buds. In today's article, we are going to teach you how to differentiate them correctly to avoid unpleasant surprises in your grow.

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