How dos Flowering really looks like?

They don't look any different and the development is the same process. Autoflowers are 'just another' plant. There's just a ton of urban myth that sorrounds them. Photoperiod is controlled by length of uninterrupted dark cycle. The day you provide enough darkness, it is in flower. You can't see it, but internally the biology has already shifted. This is a feedback loop in the plant. It's well-known and documented, because it relates to numerous species of plants. Autoflowers do it on their own so you have to guess as to the exact day it 'flipped' to flower. Usually 7-10 days before you see a preflower - a calyx or pollen sac will start to form in the nook of each branch on the plant. The plants are flowering before your eyes can see. When you take this into account, flowering times of autoflowers are no different than that of photoperiods. One urban myth refuted: "autoflowers are faster" - no, they are not. It might be possible to encounter an autoflower with a very long vege phase. In that case you might see a preflower in vege phase and not related to actual flower phase. Any mature plant will eventually grow preflowers if given enough time in vege. This will be rare that an autoflower remains in vege phase long enough for this context. With such a plant you can't be certain. You can deduct 21 days give or take from the point you see a 'mohawk' of pistils at a terminal node - usually how long that takes to form after flip. A lab could probably analyze some plant material, but i'm sure that's cost-prohibitive.

Roughly 2 weeks after the first pre-flowers appear, flowering proper will then begin. Once there are small clusters of white pistils/hairs forming, you know that flowering has started in earnest. From your picture, this plant probably fully transitioned to proper flowering a week to 10 days ago.

Usually every cannabis plant develops "preflowers" between the third and sixth week of its life. Those are a sign of beginning of sexual maturity, its like puberty for humans. An automatic plant will begin to create flowering hormones from there on, since its not dependant on the photoperiod. You should see a "stretch" in growth and more calyxes and stigmas being developed on the top part. Flowering has now begun. Automatics dont like to be restricted in the root zone. This aswell as other stressors may trigger an early flowering. Thats why you want to start automatics in big pots/end pots and stress them on the low side only. Photoperiodic plants will show signs of sexual maturity after the third and sixth week of its life aswell, but it does not mean that she will go into flower, it only shows the sex/gender and maturity of the plant. You can force them to flower before this by reducing the light to 12/12, they will have a bigger stretch the earlier you flip them though and mature plants tend to be more potent and have a greater yield. So its best to flip after preflowering, especially when using regular unfemininzed seeds to get rid of the males. It may take anything from 3 to 14 days for preflowering plants to go into flowering, depending on many factors. The biggest factor is probably again the veg. time, short veg = more stretch and longer preflowering period, longer veg = less stretch and shorter preflowering period meaning your plants switch into flowering quicker when flipping after preflowering. Hope this helps, happy growing!

Pre-flowering begins when you see first pistils and your plant starts stretching vertically, transitioning into full flowering in a matter of a week or two 😽