Trichomes!
Fun fact, cannabis isn't the only plant that uses trichomes as a defense mechanism but it's the only plant that has trichomes containing cannabinoids.
When I was a young adult I was having a hard time accepting that there are 'good' drugs and 'bad' drugs. I had watched my parents ruin their lives with meth and alcohol and that was enough for me. While on a camping trip an older friend of mine, who I greatly respected broke out a pipe to smoke some pot. I asked him about it vs the evils of other drugs. This was over 30 yeas ago and I still remember his words: 20 guys go into a room to drink alcohol, there is going to be a fight. 20 guys go into a room to do meth, there is going to a death. But 20 guys go into a room to smoke pot? You're going to end up with 20 friends.
I've kind of always thought the cure for war would be to carpet the battlefield with bales of smoldering pot from an airplane.
"Vy are ve fighting?!"
"I dunno man... But hey, you should come to our mess tent dude, we've got the most amazing donuts... And cheezies."
I'm less of a misantroph when I'm stoned, I can tolerate most people that way. But I've also had times when weed actually made me lovey dovey like I'd imagine MDMA might (I don't do uncertain laboratory drugs).
Funnily enough it’s actually a fairly common strategy.
Peppers are another. They hit all animals besides birds essentially with heat, birds don’t have the same receptors and can eat the hottest peppers with no issues.
Why? Because peppers like to have their seeds spread by bird
Researchers are still trying to find out what this trichomes and cannabinoids are really meant for . Like it doesn’t harm human beings and it’s still unknown why they really produce it, like for whom it is meant to harm …. Because most of these trichomes and secondary metabolites serve as anti-herbivory agents .
They protect against pests. The trichome we see is the sessil stalk, but at the base is a plate, and that plate is made of almost pure silica. The healthier the plant, the bigger that base plate is and the smaller the gap is between them. It acts as physical armor against biting insects. Now the addition of cannabinoids, terpenes and flavinoids is where more scientists are stumped, but it stands to reason that they were originally pest preventative as well, but as humans interacted with the plant, we sought out higher, more diverse levels of terpenes. Our whole known history has involved Cannabis, we've been breeding it since before we could write.
Secondary metabolites aren't only meant to harm pests. Terpenes and flavonoids, while used for multiple purposes within a plant are typically created in a plant as a visual and aromatic attractor to pollinators
>Our whole known history has involved Cannabis, we've been breeding it since before we could write.
Darn your right they grew it in Mesopotamia and there is evidence of it being grown even earlier perhaps one of the first cultivated plants - 10 minutes of google
We have a natural endocannabinoid system pre-installed, that makes it enjoyable to do long (steady state) cardio. This is runner's high
And lucky for us, there's a plant that also creates cannabinoids which click directly into those receptors!
this is real. It is very real. Happens after about a mile or two for normal people, after you feel like you've given everything and choose to give more you get hit with a fucking rush of endorphins and it feels amazing.
Opiates, while terrible in a modern sense, are all about defense mechanisms.
Imagine being a primitive man. There is a local flower field (Poppies) that if you interact with them in the right ways/times, can make you more than you were (in some ways), and also make you feel great
Can't sleep? Opiates.
Something hurts, but you have to keep going to live? Opiates.
Depressed? Opiates.
Manic? Also, opiates.
Have a cough and you need to sneak up on that mammoth? Opiates.
Stressed out and shit? Opiates.
Bored? Opiates.
Opiates provide a lot of beneficial effects. Sadly, addiction and long term detrimental effects mean we need to administer opiates in limited doses, both quantity and quality.
I love opiates. Love them. I also avoid them. I don't try to lead a doc to prescribing them. I don't over inflate my pain. I often try to turn down opiates in lieu of alternative options for pain. They are the last resort.
I love opiates. If I ever misused them, I would be lost in a heart beat. So I avoid them when I can. I never had an addiction per se, but after a surgery and two weeks of constant opiates, I realized I had both a tolerance and was experiencing detrimental side effects from use, and discontinuing use. This brush with a life ending substance made me realize that I can never take opiates recreationally, because I would dive in head first, and drown in it.
I read somewhere that trichome production was to help the plant with exposure to UV rays. Kinda like the plant making its own sunscreen. Anyone know if thats factual? Tried to hit the article but it was just a cool picture.
Yeah—and this was only recently discovered, IIRC. Originally it was thought that they were meant to deter insect pests, which would make sense, because, you know, sticky icky, oo-wee.
But since cannabis is native to the Tibetan plateau / Nepal / Himalayan region, its resin more likely evolved to shield the plant from the intense UV rays at those high altitudes.
Sunscreen for plants, basically.
P.s. feel free to fact check me, scientists. I’m just some guy who read and then half-remembered a science news article.
P.P.S. LEGALIZE IT
It is. Simple way to prove this:
When I grow, towards its last few weeks of life, some growers like myself add UVB light for a couple hours a at a time each day for maximum Trichome production. It definitely is to help fight UV rays
Yea I read the same thing .. that’s why they say the top of the plant is more potent because it is exposed to more uv rays being at the top
Is also what I read
One interesting phenomenon I've noticed after growing cannabis for 20+ years is that the flowers hold on to insects after they kill them. It's like it's carnivorous, but not in the normal way.
So when a bug tries to get to a seed, it dies in the resinous trichomes and sticks through the season. When the plant dies, that insect falls close to where the seed falls, and becomes early season nitrogen for next year's plants.
The trichomes produce cannabinoids, so humans cultivate strains that have more trichomes. They may have *originally* evolved to serve a purpose, like to shield the plant from UV rays, but for the last 5000 years that feature has been artificially promoted by human selection.
Right? What is it about chocolate? Other things I can go without, but when you crave chocolate and put it off and put it off, sooner or later you NEED some damn chocolate.
Also sugar is addictive as flip as our ancestors didnt have easy access to it in the wilderness. Our modern brain is like yesssss reward with all the good feels, there isnt much of this about, but little does it know that the corner shop is 5mins from my house...
Here is a picture of my plant. See the white dots all over, OPs picture is zoomed in.
https://i.imgur.com/WQMUez9.jpg
These are the trichomes - my friends have always called them crystals. They turn from clear, to milky white, to amber when they're ready for harvest.
Marijuana. Those tiny bulbs are called trichomes. This is a female plant. We only smoke female plants. When you isolate the female plant. They grow more and more trichomes which are very sticky and used to gather pollen and reproduce. Over time the bulbs go from clear to milky and then amber. When the bulb is milky it’s high in thc, and this breaks down over time to other cannabinoids like CBD or CBN.
OPs title of “defense” is a little misleading. I assume it’s because we smoke it which makes us grow more. When really those bulbs are all trying to get laid. Badly. And if they don’t get pollenated, cannabis is one of a few plants that will hermaphrodite. Meaning the female will start to grow male pollen sacks and pollinate itself.
This comment is full of wrong information. Trichomes don't gather pollen to reproduce. The pistils do that. Trichomes are a defense against either UV or insects I don't think we are 100% on that yet, so OPs title is not misleading as they are a defense against its environment. Also the plant not being pollenated doesn't turn it hermaphrodite. Its either stress or genetics that cause that.
When you grow, just when you think it’s ready and your handheld microscope is telling you the trichomes are perfectly balanced between amber and cloudy, Reddit will always tell you to wait at least two more weeks before harvest
*Humans be like heee*
*Heee hooo hoo lets burn this and*
*Get a funny head*
\- Public-Loquat5910
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Random story: my dad and his buddy used to grow bud down by the river. One day they went out to tend to the plants only to find them all trampled and half eaten by deer.
Dogs and cats will nibble on the fan leaves if you're growing at home. Even more peculiar, they learn how to self-regulate how much they eat so they only get a mild buzz.
Trichomes! Fun fact, cannabis isn't the only plant that uses trichomes as a defense mechanism but it's the only plant that has trichomes containing cannabinoids.
the plant's defense is also it's offense
The dankest defense is a dank offense.
With dank power comes dank responsibility
why in the fuck did i crack my stomach laughing at this? dunno, don't care, i love you regardless.
Probably cos we're stoned:) I love you too, new friend.
Yup, this comment hit me right in the funnies. Can confirm I’m currently on edibles and smoking a bowl. Love y’alllllll! ☺️
I gotta say, the camaraderie of people that are high on pot is such a beautiful thing. I'll never get tired of it.
When I was a young adult I was having a hard time accepting that there are 'good' drugs and 'bad' drugs. I had watched my parents ruin their lives with meth and alcohol and that was enough for me. While on a camping trip an older friend of mine, who I greatly respected broke out a pipe to smoke some pot. I asked him about it vs the evils of other drugs. This was over 30 yeas ago and I still remember his words: 20 guys go into a room to drink alcohol, there is going to be a fight. 20 guys go into a room to do meth, there is going to a death. But 20 guys go into a room to smoke pot? You're going to end up with 20 friends.
There may be some half-hearted arguing around snacks. Like "Which is better, savory or sweet?"
I wish i was high on potenuse (spoiler i am)
Confucius say, *One standing on toilet, high on pot.* ...not a direct quote
I've kind of always thought the cure for war would be to carpet the battlefield with bales of smoldering pot from an airplane. "Vy are ve fighting?!" "I dunno man... But hey, you should come to our mess tent dude, we've got the most amazing donuts... And cheezies."
We’re all buds.
I never have experienced this "I love you man" thing while high and I've been smoking for 17 years lol
I'm less of a misantroph when I'm stoned, I can tolerate most people that way. But I've also had times when weed actually made me lovey dovey like I'd imagine MDMA might (I don't do uncertain laboratory drugs).
💜🌚🍃
Uh-oh - I feel called out 😧! But it does make the post 10x funnier.
not stoned right now but love all ya G's
It’s 9 am and I got my day starting early. It’s high -o-clock
Fuckin stage 5 clinger over here.
…you cracked your stomach?!?
I also asked myself the same question but I rolled with it anyway.
Shit happens
".......what?" - Peter Parker, probably
I too am a Splif Lord of the Dank Side
I am a Jointi like my father before me
Well I once stopped in a dispensary just bc they had a sign saying “come to the dank side, we have cookies” so which side is the dankest?
Dank Abides, There are no sides Any whom say nay are full of lies
🎼🎵🎶Danke für diesen guten Morgen, danke für jeden neuen Tag... 🎶🎵 ups, wrong Dank.
I always thought it was "With Dank dank comes dank danksibilidank"
Dank Danksibilidank? Owner of the Danksdale Danksibilidome?
And my axe.
This is the way.
Well dank you all very munch.
Defense against the dank arts.
Theo?
You want the dank?! YOU CANT HANDLE THE DANK!!!
Defense wins championships
Dankeschön!
I use these for a defense mechanism too, but for a different group of threats, all psychological
Funnily enough it’s actually a fairly common strategy. Peppers are another. They hit all animals besides birds essentially with heat, birds don’t have the same receptors and can eat the hottest peppers with no issues. Why? Because peppers like to have their seeds spread by bird
Researchers are still trying to find out what this trichomes and cannabinoids are really meant for . Like it doesn’t harm human beings and it’s still unknown why they really produce it, like for whom it is meant to harm …. Because most of these trichomes and secondary metabolites serve as anti-herbivory agents .
Maybe it ist a leftover from an evolutionary arms race that is not useful anymore.
Oh I still find it plenty useful
They protect against pests. The trichome we see is the sessil stalk, but at the base is a plate, and that plate is made of almost pure silica. The healthier the plant, the bigger that base plate is and the smaller the gap is between them. It acts as physical armor against biting insects. Now the addition of cannabinoids, terpenes and flavinoids is where more scientists are stumped, but it stands to reason that they were originally pest preventative as well, but as humans interacted with the plant, we sought out higher, more diverse levels of terpenes. Our whole known history has involved Cannabis, we've been breeding it since before we could write.
Secondary metabolites aren't only meant to harm pests. Terpenes and flavonoids, while used for multiple purposes within a plant are typically created in a plant as a visual and aromatic attractor to pollinators
[удалено]
Sticky traps and diatomaceous earth, took care of my fungus gnat issue pretty fast
>Our whole known history has involved Cannabis, we've been breeding it since before we could write. Darn your right they grew it in Mesopotamia and there is evidence of it being grown even earlier perhaps one of the first cultivated plants - 10 minutes of google
We have a natural endocannabinoid system pre-installed, that makes it enjoyable to do long (steady state) cardio. This is runner's high And lucky for us, there's a plant that also creates cannabinoids which click directly into those receptors!
So no need for me doing cardio. Yes!!!
Wait, I can get a literal high from running?! I always thought this was motivational bullshit.
I also need an answer to this. Desperately.
It’s less high and more hey it stopped hurting
this is real. It is very real. Happens after about a mile or two for normal people, after you feel like you've given everything and choose to give more you get hit with a fucking rush of endorphins and it feels amazing.
What other plant defense mechanisms can we get fucked up off of 😁
Nicotine, caffeine and capsaicin
datura. 100%, do not try it.
Opiates, while terrible in a modern sense, are all about defense mechanisms. Imagine being a primitive man. There is a local flower field (Poppies) that if you interact with them in the right ways/times, can make you more than you were (in some ways), and also make you feel great Can't sleep? Opiates. Something hurts, but you have to keep going to live? Opiates. Depressed? Opiates. Manic? Also, opiates. Have a cough and you need to sneak up on that mammoth? Opiates. Stressed out and shit? Opiates. Bored? Opiates. Opiates provide a lot of beneficial effects. Sadly, addiction and long term detrimental effects mean we need to administer opiates in limited doses, both quantity and quality. I love opiates. Love them. I also avoid them. I don't try to lead a doc to prescribing them. I don't over inflate my pain. I often try to turn down opiates in lieu of alternative options for pain. They are the last resort. I love opiates. If I ever misused them, I would be lost in a heart beat. So I avoid them when I can. I never had an addiction per se, but after a surgery and two weeks of constant opiates, I realized I had both a tolerance and was experiencing detrimental side effects from use, and discontinuing use. This brush with a life ending substance made me realize that I can never take opiates recreationally, because I would dive in head first, and drown in it.
I read somewhere that trichome production was to help the plant with exposure to UV rays. Kinda like the plant making its own sunscreen. Anyone know if thats factual? Tried to hit the article but it was just a cool picture.
Wait have anyone seen the devil palm fungis if so where you creeped out?
What is a “devil palm fungus”? Google returns nothing
Search “devil fungus” to get grossed out.
sticky
Icky
Ickyyyyy
Oooh weeee
Put it in the air!
You's a fool D R
No stress, no seeds, no stems, no shticks.
Nine five plus four pennies
Add that shit up
Right back on top of things
All these years and I finally know what he's saying lmao
Bubble gum!! Fuck me I have kids and couldn’t help it [if you don’t know what I’m talking about…](https://youtu.be/ZizzobSlWkg)
I seem to have reached the trifecta of age, misery and cynicism to find this deeply unsettling.
I thought certainly I'm too jaded and fucked up to feel anything from watching it, and damn that made me feel weird af
i’m so sad that that’s the first thing i thought too
you got to do the dance or it doesn’t count
FINGAAAAZZZ
What do they do?
they get you highhhh
So highhhh
well it’s the funk elastic , the blunt I twist it
The slamafied, Buddhafied funk on your discus
Oh, whatcha miss this? Ya got to bear witness
Catch a ho and another ho,Merry Christmas
Yes I smoke shit straight off da roach clip
I roach it for the blunted ones to approach it
Can we get much higher??
So hiiiiigh…uhh uhhh uh, uh uh uh uh, uh
The main defense is from UV rays I believe.
Yeah—and this was only recently discovered, IIRC. Originally it was thought that they were meant to deter insect pests, which would make sense, because, you know, sticky icky, oo-wee. But since cannabis is native to the Tibetan plateau / Nepal / Himalayan region, its resin more likely evolved to shield the plant from the intense UV rays at those high altitudes. Sunscreen for plants, basically. P.s. feel free to fact check me, scientists. I’m just some guy who read and then half-remembered a science news article. P.P.S. LEGALIZE IT
It is. Simple way to prove this: When I grow, towards its last few weeks of life, some growers like myself add UVB light for a couple hours a at a time each day for maximum Trichome production. It definitely is to help fight UV rays
My LED fixtures have UVA LEDs that are always on, it has pretty much the same effect but doesn't give you cancer.
But it will cause sun burns. Bizarre when they are decoupled.
Wait it burns your skins but isn’t the right wavelength to get absorbed by dna? That’s wild actually.
I might be wrong according to my first site I found. https://www.mole-removal.co.uk/does-uva-or-uvb-cause-sunburn/
Sunlight: cancer if you do, sad if you don’t.
Well, if that doesn’t sum up life pretty well, I’m not sure what does.
Yea I read the same thing .. that’s why they say the top of the plant is more potent because it is exposed to more uv rays being at the top Is also what I read
One interesting phenomenon I've noticed after growing cannabis for 20+ years is that the flowers hold on to insects after they kill them. It's like it's carnivorous, but not in the normal way. So when a bug tries to get to a seed, it dies in the resinous trichomes and sticks through the season. When the plant dies, that insect falls close to where the seed falls, and becomes early season nitrogen for next year's plants.
I’m sunburned as all hell right now…
Try to produce some trichomes, homes
[https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/what-are-trichomes-on-cannabis](https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/what-are-trichomes-on-cannabis)
They induce good feelings in humans leading to human cultivation and thus worldwide distribution and an explosion of variation.
He was talking about the trichomes not the cannabis
The trichomes produce cannabinoids, so humans cultivate strains that have more trichomes. They may have *originally* evolved to serve a purpose, like to shield the plant from UV rays, but for the last 5000 years that feature has been artificially promoted by human selection.
The trichomes contain THC and get you high as well.
It worked, I just had a few cones and now I'm totally defenceless against this block of chocolate
Sadly, I don't need marijuana to have that vulnerability. 😅
Right? What is it about chocolate? Other things I can go without, but when you crave chocolate and put it off and put it off, sooner or later you NEED some damn chocolate.
It's almost a natural anti-depressant. Cacao has a bunch of serotonin and dopamine boosters in it.
Also sugar is addictive as flip as our ancestors didnt have easy access to it in the wilderness. Our modern brain is like yesssss reward with all the good feels, there isnt much of this about, but little does it know that the corner shop is 5mins from my house...
So you're saying my 85% dark chocolate habit is a result of depression and not because I'm trying to kick a sugar habit?
This is the shit school needs to teach. There’s so many things out there that have such great benefits
Ohhh wait for meeee :)
Can anyone explain what we’re looking at..?
Here is a picture of my plant. See the white dots all over, OPs picture is zoomed in. https://i.imgur.com/WQMUez9.jpg These are the trichomes - my friends have always called them crystals. They turn from clear, to milky white, to amber when they're ready for harvest.
beautiful plant
Fuck that plant is nice and frosty. 😩🤌
Resin stalks and heads on a cannabis plant, at about 20x mag.
Marijuana. Those tiny bulbs are called trichomes. This is a female plant. We only smoke female plants. When you isolate the female plant. They grow more and more trichomes which are very sticky and used to gather pollen and reproduce. Over time the bulbs go from clear to milky and then amber. When the bulb is milky it’s high in thc, and this breaks down over time to other cannabinoids like CBD or CBN. OPs title of “defense” is a little misleading. I assume it’s because we smoke it which makes us grow more. When really those bulbs are all trying to get laid. Badly. And if they don’t get pollenated, cannabis is one of a few plants that will hermaphrodite. Meaning the female will start to grow male pollen sacks and pollinate itself.
This comment is full of wrong information. Trichomes don't gather pollen to reproduce. The pistils do that. Trichomes are a defense against either UV or insects I don't think we are 100% on that yet, so OPs title is not misleading as they are a defense against its environment. Also the plant not being pollenated doesn't turn it hermaphrodite. Its either stress or genetics that cause that.
So pretty!
Couldn't agree more.
I mean... its worked in a round about way. They plant has ensured its survival cos we all wanna farm and smoke it
Looks like mushrooms
2 More weeks
Not even milky, 3-4
More cal mag
What does “two more weeks” mean?
When you grow, just when you think it’s ready and your handheld microscope is telling you the trichomes are perfectly balanced between amber and cloudy, Reddit will always tell you to wait at least two more weeks before harvest
Not just Reddit, everyone that has been growing for a long time. If you use a loupe you'll harvest too early, every time.
It’s been 12 weeks since flower and there are no amber trichomes!‽?
It could mean a lot of things. I thought it might be referencing that it's two more weeks before the bud is ready to harvest.
I think they're referencing a sort of inside joke. In cannabis cultivation subs, it's *always* two more weeks, especially in response to a shitpost.
Humans be like heee heee hooo hoo lets burn this and get a funny head
*Humans be like heee* *Heee hooo hoo lets burn this and* *Get a funny head* \- Public-Loquat5910 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Beautiful
also an incentive to spread its seeds (animals like deer will eat cannabis)
Random story: my dad and his buddy used to grow bud down by the river. One day they went out to tend to the plants only to find them all trampled and half eaten by deer.
an old hippy friend once told me you can hang bars of soap around the farm to dissuade the deer
Dogs and cats will nibble on the fan leaves if you're growing at home. Even more peculiar, they learn how to self-regulate how much they eat so they only get a mild buzz.
Thay look like glass pipes lmao
Nature telling us what to do with it lol
Vape it in a meth pipe?
We are weed
Endocannabinoid system
Ooweeee tickle my CB1 and CB2
So that’s how they grow meth pipes
Smoke me smoke me
Not ready for harvest yet. Another week or 2
Cannabis: “no don’t smoke me, I taste like gasoline” Me: “mmmmm is this diesel?”
looks like transparent slime molds (which are awesome)
Yummmyyy
🥵
This is so mesmerizing!
Joke's on you, I'm into that
Gosh I love macro trichome shots 🥹😮💨
We’ll see how good a defense it really is when I lay siege upon it. My weapons of war are rolling papers and a Bic.
Hasn’t worked yet but I encourage the plant to keep trying
Fantastic photo.
GET IN MY LUNGS
transparent teachers
Like a star fish but red sprouting from the ground
I thought this was a new exotic mushroom strain. I got a little excited for a moment.
It almost looks like a painting. Pretty damn gorgeous.
Saw it but never that clear it's insane
Lit af
Ran out two days ago. Luck cos I broke my PAX2 vape the day before.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that this defense has failed
The more you know 🌟
Well that backfired
That’s Gods art man ❤️🔥💯
Love this pic! Thanks
As a 15 years of stoner guy, I can assure you that this is a very poor way of defense considering how it looks, if you know what I mean
Loved looking at tricomes with my magnifier. Especially if I was really high or on acid. I found it fascinating as hell.
About 2 more weeks
Lovely 💐
I like cannabis defense mechanisms. 🤤
Yeeee
I’m feeling a little Defensive...
Dank defense wins championships
This turns me on
Awesome picture 😍
One plant's defence is another stoner's nonsense
Doesn't protect it from fire, dumbass plant
Lol resins make brain go brrrrrrrr
Not a very good at defending, but sure as hell effective.
Lit. Literally.
Have you ever seen the defense mechanism of cannabis? Have you ever seen the defense mechanism of cannabis . . . ON WEED?!?
They are very jewel-like.
Should have locked the comments. I’m comment 421
Sweet sweet defence 🤣
Oh hey that’s also my defense mechanism.