You mean the bracts, not calyxes...a calyx is a thin layer of tissue surrounding the ovule (or prospective seed) and is barely visable even with a microscope. Sorry, just a little Horticulture Nomenclature.
ahh you are correct my friend it seems i have been calling the plant parts by the incorrect name. upon further research, i stumbled upon this little article which was quite informative. good catch and thank you for correcting me in such a genteel way. here is the bit i found:
MARIJUANA FEMALE FLOWER
Calyx or Bract?
Ordinary folks and others have been dumbed-down big time by a psuedo-science that this writer thinks is a part of a misinformation scheme by the Narcs. And one doesn't have to look much further than the word CALYX for an example. Here's an excerpt from Marijuana Botany found on google: "The females are recognized by the enlargement of a symmetrical tubular calyx (floral sheath)." This is a widely held WRONG description of the marijuana flower. It is not a calyx nor is it a floral sheath!
CALYX: "The outer series of leaf-like segments of the flower which is usually green in colour, it may be large and colourful, present or absent. For example, it encloses the rose flower while it is still a bud."
BRACT: "A leaf-like structure, different in form from the foliage
leaves and without an axillary bud, associated with an inflorescence or flower."
The Mahlberg and Kim study of hemp call the female marijuana flower a floral bract, and there you have it! The marijuana female flower is a floral bract which has a leaf-like tubular structure upon which the capitate-stalked glandular trichomes can grow and from which a pair of stigma emerges.
Is there a CALYX on a marijuana plant? Yes. Look at a vegetative marijuana plant. The little things that are shaped somewhat like very small iris leaves located on the trunk (or branch) at the junction of the leaf stem are calyx. They do not form a tube from which stigma emerge nor grow the capitate-stalked glandular trichome nor play any role in the phytochemical production of THC except as sites where the male and female flowers emerge from the trunk (or branch) on the respective plants.
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copyright 2003 George Grass rev 2004
