In the realm of cannabis, there’s a depth beyond what meets the casual observer or your old school partakers. For those who appreciate the intricacies of the flower, it’s likely that curiosity has led to wondering about the nature of those diminutive crystals adorning the leaves and buds. These crystals, often glistening and adhesive, emit captivating aromas that you learned are terpenes. Upon closer inspection, you can discover that these glistening layers of frost are, in fact, extensive clusters of “trichomes”. The actual definition of trichome is “fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists.” A word with the meaning “growth of hair,” these tiny microscopic mushroom-looking protuberances look like something out of a science fiction novel. But they are actually the very factories that produce the hundreds of known cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids that make our favorite cannabis strains potent, unique, and effective. Trichomes exist in many shapes and sizes, but there are three that appear most often on cannabis plants: