<P> The pineal gland is a midline brain structure that is unpaired . It takes its name from its pine - cone shape . The gland is reddish - gray and about the size of a grain of rice ( 5 -- 8 mm ) in humans . The pineal gland , also called the pineal body , is part of the epithalamus , and lies between the laterally positioned thalamic bodies and behind the habenular commissure . It is located in the quadrigeminal cistern near to the corpora quadrigemina . It is also located behind the third ventricle and is bathed in cerebrospinal fluid supplied through a small pineal recess of the third ventricle which projects into the stalk of the gland . </P>
the can be found as part of the epithalamus near the superior colliculi of the midbrain
pineal gland