This article originally appeared in the August 2017 print edition of Cannabis Business Times. To subscribe, click here.
As our industry grows and attracts more botanists, horticulturalists and formally trained master growers, we need to be on the same page for our cannabis discussions. For clarity and uniformity, it’s important that we standardize our common language terms and use botanical terms correctly.
Common terms such as bud, cola and nug are often used interchangeably, whereas several botanical terms are misused more often than not. Here, we go over botanical features of the cannabis plant and identify its components to help cultivators use accurate terminology.
As I learned in the 1970s, the term bud and cola had qualitative differences in meaning. Decades later, nugs, another term for buds, became popular with indoor growers. All three—bud, cola and nug— consist of female marijuana flowers, yet all have unique characteristics that currently are losing their original distinctions.
To read the full article in Cannabis Business Times' August edition, click here.
Top photo: Bud, typical hybrid (Afghani/African x Colombian);Cola, sun-grown; Nug, Blackberry. Courtesy of Mel Frank.
