Hello again my lovelies, in today’s installment if Cannatomy I present to you, the Fan Leaf. You know the leaf I’m talking about. That oh so beautiful, classic seven pointed pot leaf. It has got to be one of the most iconic symbols and it’s a symbol that has spanned generations.
Even though the fan leaves of the cannabis plant do not bring much to the table when it comes to cannabinoid content, they do deserve attention. These notorious leaves have some party tricks of their own, too. For instance, the strucker of the seven points will help you tell if the plant leans more towards Sativa or Indica. This trick is shown when the leaf grows in. If the points are slender and long, the plant leans towards Sativa dominance, but if the points are shorter and slightly wider, the plant leans towards being Indica dominant.
The fan leaf is not a shy leaf either. It will display a variety of warning signs to alert you to a problem with the plant.
Fan leaves also show you warning signals when the plant is experiencing stress or disease. These food creating beauties do a lot more than just look pretty. They are a lot more than just the spokesmodel of the age old Cannabis Culture. They are integral to the plants health and yield. Fan leaves work very hard to provide the entire plant with the proper amount of their photosynthesized energy. Not only do they follow the sun throughout the day but they jostle their neighbours for prime real estate. The number one goal of any fan leaf is to create and provide as much nutrients to the plant as it needs to promote lush bud growth and to maintain its healthy structure. To do this, the fan leaf needs to be exposed to as much sunlight as possible.
The fan leaf is not a shy leaf either. It will display a variety of warning signs to alert you to a problem with the plant. For example, the fan leaf will show signs of a Boron deficiency by turning the tips of the leaves a brownish -gray color and by showing signs of decay through small black dots around the affected parts of the leaf. Another example would be an Iron deficiency which is given away by the fan leafs lack of green color (cholorphile). When the plant is experiencing an iron deficiency, the fan leaves lack chlorophyll which causes them to grow in a bright yellow shade. The only visible green in the leaf at this point are the veins of the leaf.
There are a variety of illnesses/deficiencies that the fan leaf will alert you to. This is a quality of theirs that I find amazing and a big point in favour of the international recognitions it garners. Even though these leaves are not the main focus of the cannabis plant as a whole, it does deserve the recognition it receives. We would not have noteworthy or award winning cannabis flowers without the hard work of the fan leaf and we certainly would have very little knowledge of the plants overall health without the clever warning signals these clever little minx’s.
Even though the products we get from the local dispensaries are devoid of fan leaves, it’s still a part of the plant that deserves attention and is a fun topic of conversation in any stoner group. However, if you have the chance to visit a grow room, or if you are growing your own itty bitty weed baby, be sure to take a good look at the fan leaves and remember to check out the structure of their points to help you determine if the plant is more indica or sativa dominant.
If you’re not visiting a grow room or growing, then you just keep on keepin’ on and enjoy the leaf for what it is. A simple, yet beautiful leaf.