Pistil

The pistil is the female reproductive structure of an angiosperm flower, comprising ovary, style, and stigma(s). Each cannabis female flower bears a single unilocular, superior ovary containing one anatropous ovule; two elongate stigmatic branches emerge through a short style and protrude beyond the enclosing perigonal bract (Small 2015; Spitzer-Rimon et al. 2019). In cannabis horticultural usage, "pistil" is frequently — and imprecisely — applied to the visible filamentous "hairs" alone; strictly, those hairs are the stigmas, and the complete pistil is an internal structure mostly hidden within the bract (Small 2015). Pistil color transition (white/cream → orange/red/brown) over the final 2–4 weeks of flowering is a widely used harvest-timing cue, reflecting stigmatic senescence after the plant's unsuccessful attempt to receive pollen (Livingston et al. 2020). Etymology: Latin pistillum ("pestle"), from the shape. Synonyms/slang: "hair," "red hair," gynoecium (multi-carpellate equivalent). → See also: Stigma, Calyx, Female plant, Pollination.