Anyone who has browsed through our store for any length of time will immediately notice the many different colored cannabis strains.
What is the most common color of cannabis besides green?
The most common color of cannabis plants other than green is purple. The many different cannabis strains have different cannabinoid contents, flavor profiles and anthocyanins. Anthocyanins are blue, purple or red pigments found in purple fruits and vegetables such as plums, pomegranates, blueberries and eggplants.
Color and phytochemicals, which are chemical compounds produced by plants to help them grow or to ward off competitors, predators or pathogens, can appear in different hues depending on pH. They range from blue to purple and sometimes even red.
The colors of the flowers depend on the genetics of the variety. The growth process of each strain activates genes associated with specific color ranges, which means that each color we see has its own phytochemical.
What phytochemicals are there and what color do they produce?
- Anthocyanin - blue/purple
- Anthoxanthin - white/creamy white
- Carotenoids - yellow/orange
- Chlorophyll - green
- Lycopene - red
When a cannabis plant senses that its cycle is coming to an end, it lets the marijuana flowers ripen like autumn leaves. This is the time when each phytochemical blossoms and shows us the full color spectrum of what each strain has to offer. This is sometimes referred to as fall color. Although phytochemicals and pistils are important for any bud, they are not an indicator of THC content, although phytochemicals do contain antioxidants. In fruits and vegetables phytochemicals affect color, taste and smell, in cannabis only the color.
Do the pistils also change color?
But of course, once the buds are thick and fat, the pistils have finished absorbing pollen and turn various colors from fiery red to light brown or orange. These pistils, the tiny hairs that cover the buds, are the female organs of a flower and are more important than you might think. They serve as pollen-catching hairs that grow out of the calyx of the flower during the vegetative stage of the plant.
Some scientists suspect a link between the phytochemicals that provide antioxidants and health benefits when eating cabbage, raspberries and red onions, and the phytochemicals that cause color changes in cannabis.
However, as with everything to do with cannabis, more research is needed into how they are actually related.
