Plant two seeds from the same parents and you can end up with two visibly different plants — one taller, one frostier, one leaning purple. That gap between what's written in the genes and what actually shows up in the garden is the difference between genotype and phenotype, and understanding it explains a great deal about how genetics are made.
Genotype: the written code
The genotype is the full genetic instruction set a plant inherits — the code it carries whether or not every part of it is expressed. Two siblings share most of their genotype, but each draws a slightly different hand from the same deck.
Phenotype: what actually expresses
The phenotype is what you can observe: structure, colour, resin, aroma, flowering behaviour. It's the genotype filtered through environment and chance. A single genotype can produce several phenotypes — which is why a new hybrid so often throws a range of expressions in its early generations.
Phenotype hunting
Breeders sift through those expressions looking for the plant that best embodies what a line should be — the phenotype worth keeping. Select it, breed toward it across generations, and the range narrows. This patient search is the human craft behind every stabilized line.
What it means for a stabilized line
The more stabilized a genetic, the less its phenotypes wander — siblings converge on one recognizable expression. That predictability is precisely what a collector is preserving. See how our lines resolve into consistent phenotypes in the lineage map, or browse the catalogue.