system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 how weed goes from a leaf that looks like a star into a bud that looks like craggy fried chicken?

I just can't seem to wrap my head around how both things are the same plant. Do they dry the leaf out?
gpt
You smoke the flower, not the leaf. The flower looks roughly like a hop cone, which it's related to. It's not brightly colored like the flowers that come easiest to mind, because cannabis is wind-pollenated, so it doesn't need to attract insects, the way [normal] flowers do.