Cannabis is usually dioecious: individual plants produce either staminate (male) flowers or pistillate (female) flowers. The two are easy to tell apart once you know what structures are visible—and, just as importantly, which ones aren’t. Most confusion online comes from misapplied terms, so this guide sticks to the real parts you can see with the naked eye and how they develop.

Male (staminate) flower

A mature male cannabis flower has five green sepals (the perianth) that open like a small umbrella. Nestled beneath them are five stamens. Each stamen consists of a slender filament that ends in an anther—the pollen-bearing organ. In cannabis the filaments are relatively short, so the anthers sit close under the open sepals rather than dangling far below.

Development matters for identification. An immature male flower looks like a smooth, closed ovoid bud: the sepals are fused around the inside and no stamens are visible yet. As it matures, the sepals part; the anthers expand and then dehisce along longitudinal slits to release pollen. There is no pistil in a male flower—no ovary, no style, no stigmas.

A reliable field cue: once a cluster opens you’ll see multiple oval anthers grouped together around the flower’s center, not a single threadlike structure.

Female (pistillate) flower

A female flower is organized around a single pistil—the entire reproductive structure composed of ovary + style + stigmas. In cannabis, the ovary is enclosed by a tear-drop bract (often called the perigonal bract). From inside that bract emerges a short style that splits into two long, paired stigmas; these are the “white hairs” growers notice to confirm the female sex when the plant is mature.

Two clarifications that fix a lot of misinformation:

• The bract is not the calyx. The true calyx/perianth of a female cannabis plant is a thin, membranous layer around the ovule—only a few cells thick—and not visible externally in normal viewing. What you can see and touch, and where most of the resinous trichomes are present, is the bract, which encloses the ovary and later the developing seed.
• The visible “hairs” are the stigmas, which are part of the pistil. The pistil is the whole unit (ovary + style + stigmas), not just the stigmas themselves.

A reliable field cue: a female flower shows a single bract with two protruding stigmas; you won’t see multiple anthers clustered together.

Quick side-by-side

• Male: five sepals; five stamens (filament + anther); no pistil/stigmas. Immature stage = closed, smooth bud with stamens enclosed. Mature stage = sepals open and multiple anthers visible at once.
• Female: bract enclosing the ovary; pistil emerges from within as two long stigmas protruding through the top. The calyx membrane is microscopic in practice; what’s visible is the bract and part of the pistil.

Four common mislabels (and the correct terms)

1. “Balls” / “pollen sacs” for immature males The smooth, closed bud on a young male is fused sepals, not a sac. The actual pollen containers are the anthers, which you won’t see until the flower opens. Think “closed perianth now; anthers later.”

2. “Bananas” / “nanners” for stamen The “banana” people spot on a female plant late in bloom is an exposed anther (often from a hermaphroditic flower). It’s not a sac and not part of the female pistil. Correct phrasing: exserted anther (a stamen component) appearing where a pistillate flower should be.

3. Bracts called “calyxes” The tear-drop-shaped swell you can pinch is the bract surrounding the ovary/seed. The true calyx is a thin perianth membrane covering the ovule; it’s not the visible, fleshy envelope you trim and consume.

4. Stigmas called “pistils” The white/pink/red/brown hairs are stigmas, just one part of the pistil. Use “stigmas” when describing color changes during ripening; reserve “pistil” for the whole ovary–style–stigma unit.

Why the mix-ups persist

Two habits fuel the confusion. First, cannabis diagrams online often show highly stylized flowers (this article is guilty of that to add clarity) or skip males altogether, so people reach for metaphors (“balls,” “bananas”) instead of anatomy. Second, the bract dominates the female flower visually while the true calyx is microscopic, so the horticulture slang drifted decades ago and stuck.

The fix is simple: teach the silhouette.

• Male: umbrella of five sepals + cluster of five anthers—no hairs.
• Female: single bract with two stigmas—no anthers.

Practical ID tips

• When something opens and dusts, name the part: anther.
• When you see a tear-drop shape, often coated in sticky trichomes, name the part: bract.
• When you see two hairs emerging from a tear-drop shape, name the part: stigmas from a pistil inside a bract.
• When you see a closed, smooth bud on a pre-flowering plant, say fused sepals (immature male) rather than “pollen sac.”

Getting the words right helps growers interpret what they see in the canopy—spotting true males early, diagnosing hermaphroditic flowers correctly, and explaining development stages without myths.

Summary of misnomers and corrections