What are trichomes?
Trichomes are tiny growths that coat certain plants and allow them to perform certain biological processes. These small appendages in the form of hair can be used to protect against heat, certain insects or even to collect ambient humidity.
It is for example the trichomes of the nettle that give it its stinging properties. It is these little hairs that cover the nettle that act like tiny syringes, piercing the skin and injecting toxins into it that trigger the stinging reaction that we know well with the nettle.
We can also mention some carnivorous plants that use trichomes as sticky traps to catch insects. In contact with a foreign body, the trichomes are stimulated and the plant contracts in order to block the prey within its cage of sticky and resinous trichomes.
Cannabis trichomes
Cannabis also has trichomes that perform different biological functions. In his case, don't worry, there is no stinging or carnivorous function, but cannabis trichomes also have certain originalities that we will describe here.
Cannabis has several types of trichomes, some quite classic and present on many other plants such as those of the roots or those present under the leaves, but here we are going to look a little more closely at the trichomes glandular and resinous present on the flowers.
Indeed, it is this category of trichomes which is the most original and which is at the origin of the psychoactive effects of cannabis.
These trichomes, which look more like small mushrooms than hairs, perform many physiological functions for the cannabis plant and research is still looking into their usefulness.
They are mainly found on the cannabis flower and in smaller quantities on the leaves.
Beyond their particular form, their originality lies above all in the fact that they are the ones which concentrate the majority of the cannabinoids present in the cannabis plant and which are therefore at the origin of the psychoactive effects of the latter.
It would seem that they are present to protect the seeds of the cannabis flower from the sun, insects and predators.
The presence of cannabinoids in these trichomes could also be explained by an evolutionary function that allowed cannabis to protect itself from herbivorous predators by giving them a "bad trip" that will repel them at the next encounter like plants poisoned in a few kinds.
Hashish and cannabis trichomes
Hashish is closely linked to trichomes since it is entirely composed of them. Indeed hashish is quite simply a cluster of these trichomes arranged in a bar or ball. The goal is to develop a cannabis by-product even more concentrated in psychoactive agents.
Hash is often called "pollen" but this is a scientific error since hash is produced from unfertilized female flowers which by definition do not secrete pollen unlike males. It's actually trichome!
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