Grow slang. Its a true flower, but they come on a while before the plant starts budding in ernest. They usually form at the internode between a branch & the main stem. Yes, they are capable of breeding. In the 70's, there was a theory that if you pollinated the pre-flowers, (both male & female had to be pre-flowers) the resulting plants from these seeds would be earlier than the parents. The thought was, that if you did this for several generations, you would have a stable strain that was much earlier than its ancestors. Never heard anymore more about it, but since the pre-flowers would have had the same genetics as normal flowers, I never believed this theory to begin with. If it had proven true, I think it would have become a well known mainstay of breeding programs. Kinda like what I said about sour diesel in another post to you, names can be misleading!
---- Ahhh Buggy. It's that analytical mind of yours again, trying to make sense out of something illogical! LOL! GOTTA LOVE YOUR MIND! You have to remember, some of the grow terminology was coined may years ago by people who weren't necessarily literate, & most of these terms stuck. I think it's cute as hell when you go all scientific on 'em! GIRLS STILL RULE!