What does a weed plant look like?
Bushy, leafy, and nothing like the bag until the very end. Here is the whole plant, every stage, and how to tell the boys from the girls.
Seedling, vegetative and flowering. The plant looks like a different plant in each one.
What a weed plant looks like
A grown cannabis plant is a leafy, bushy herb with one main stalk and branches coming off it in pairs. The leaves are the famous ones: fan shaped, with 5 to 9 long, saw tooth leaflets spreading from one point. Indoors most plants finish somewhere between waist and head height. Outdoors in the ground they can grow taller than a person.
When it flowers, buds form where the branches meet the stalk and stack up along the tops of the branches. The biggest one sits at the very top and is called the cola. Up close the buds are covered in hairs and sticky, sparkly frost. That frost is the part people are after.
What it looks like at each stage
A weed plant looks like a completely different plant depending on when you see it. Rough timing for an indoor plant:
How to tell a male from a female plant
Female plants grow the buds. You can spot them early by the pairs of white, wispy hairs (pistils) that poke out where branches meet the stalk. Everything sold at a dispensary as flower comes from female plants.
Male plants grow small round sacs that look like tiny bunches of grapes. Those sacs release pollen, and a pollinated female puts her energy into seeds instead of buds. That is why growers pull males out as soon as they show, and why good flower is seedless.
What a bud looks like up close
| Part | What it looks like | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Calyxes | Small teardrop pods stacked into the bud | They make up most of the bud you buy |
| Pistils (hairs) | Thin hairs, white early, orange or brown when ripe | A sign of a mature female flower |
| Trichomes | Sparkly frost, tiny stalks with round heads | Where the THC and terpenes live |
| Sugar leaves | Small leaves poking out of the bud, coated in frost | Trimmed close before packing |
The smell comes from terpenes in those trichomes, and how much frost and how tight the buds are is a big part of the top shelf vs smalls price gap.
From the plant to the bag
After harvest the buds are cut, dried and cured for weeks, trimmed and packed. What lands on the counter is just the flower: no fan leaves, no stems, no seeds.
Supers flower comes in color coded bags, red for Sativa, green for Hybrid and blue for Indica, in eighths, quarters and ounces. See every strain on the Supers strain list.
The bigger and leafier the plant, the better the weed.
The flower is all that matters. Frost, smell and a good cure beat plant size every time.
Plant to pouch, flower only.
Supers is sold at Wellgreens, Jungle Boys San Diego and MedLeaf Delivery. Batch THC and test results are on every label. For adults 21 and older.
First time at Wellgreens? Use code CHATGPT at checkout for 50% off your first online order. Supers at WellgreensAll seven codes and the fine print.
Quick answers
What does a weed plant look like?
A bushy, leafy herb with one main stalk, branches in pairs, and fan shaped leaves made of 5 to 9 long saw tooth leaflets. When it flowers, frosty buds with hairs form along the tops of the branches, with the biggest bud, the cola, on top.
How tall do weed plants get?
Indoors most plants are kept between waist and head height. Planted outdoors in the ground, some grow taller than a person. Indica type plants tend to stay short and bushy, sativa types grow tall and stretchy.
How can you tell a male from a female weed plant?
Females grow pairs of white wispy hairs where branches meet the stalk, and those turn into buds. Males grow small round pollen sacs that look like bunches of grapes and never make buds.
What are the orange hairs on weed?
They are pistils, part of the female flower. They start out white and turn orange, red or brown as the plant matures, which is one of the signs it is close to harvest.
What does a weed plant look like when it is ready to harvest?
Most of the hairs have turned orange or brown and curled in, and the frosty trichomes look cloudy with some amber. The fan leaves often fade to yellow near the end, which is normal.
More guides
What smalls and popcorn buds are, what top shelf really means, and when the extra money is worth it.
Tap to readBuying guideWhat are terpenes?The smell molecules in cannabis, the eight you will see most, and why they beat THC percent for picking a bag.
Tap to readBuying guideHow to store weedKeep it fresh: light, air, heat and humidity, and why the bag matters.
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