I haven't gotten scholarly enough to figure out exactly what those trichomes are about or what they are called. I believe they're visible on the plant most of it's life if you look closely enough. If you get a microscope and start wandering over your plant you'll find little resin glands on stalks all over the leaves and stems. I have no idea if they have much thc. There are three types of trichomes, or so I have read, defined by their different size and shape. I'm assuming that they're mostly there to protect against predators. If you are taking a tour of your plant by microscope (something that's a lot of fun after smoking a bunch, though it's kind of hard work focussing the thing at least with mine) then you'll see what I mean. They look like they'd make it very difficult for anything to travel on the plant, since it's basically a dense and sticky forest.