corn, in botany. The name corn is given to the leading cereal crop of any major region. In England corn means wheat; in Scotland and Ireland, oats. The grain called corn in the United States is Indian corn or maize (Zea mays). The part of the United States where most of the corn is grown, including Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, is known as the Corn Belt.

The Corn Plant

The corn plant has a pithy noded stalk supported by prop roots. The staminate (male) flowers form the tassel at the top of the plant. The pistillate (female) flowers are the kernels on the cob, which is enclosed by a leafy husk beyond which extend threadlike styles and stigmas (the silk), which catch the pollen. The corn plant with its ornamental tassel and ears has been a motif of American art since prehistoric times.

The plant is a grass grass, any plant of the family Gramineae, an important and widely distributed group of vascular plants, having an extraordinary range of adaptation. Numbering approximately 600 genera and 9,000 species, the grasses form the climax vegetation (see ecology ) in great
..... Click the link for more information. that was domesticated and cultivated in the Americas long before Europeans reached the New World. It is so changed from the ancestral wild grass that its original form has not been identified with certainty, and it has been so adapted to cultivation that it cannot sustain itself without human cultivation. It is probably a complex hybrid of several related New World grasses, e.g., teosinte (Euchlaena mexicana), a tropical American fodder plant in which the seeds are not united in a cob. The Native Americans had many varieties of corn, e.g., sweet corn, popcorn, and corn for corn meal. White, yellow, red, and blue corn were grown as distinct strains.

Development of Hybrids

The easily produced and readily identifiable strains of corn made it a favorite subject for experimental genetics. The development of hybrid corn seed was an early (beginning of the 20th cent.) and revolutionary introduction of the principles of theoretical science into practical agriculture. At first ridiculed, the scientifically developed hybrids came to represent most commercially grown corn types. They resulted in higher yields, increased sugar and lowered starch content, and uniform plants bred to specification for mechanical harvesting. Most recently, genetic engineering has produced corn with added sweetness, disease resistance, and other desired traits.

Uses

As human food, corn is eaten fresh or ground for meal. It is the basic starch plant of Central and Andean South America, where it is still hand ground on metates to be made into tamales, tortillas, and other staple dishes. In the S United States it is familiar as hominy, mush, and grits. Starch, sugar, and oil are also extracted for many products, but the chief use of corn is as animal fodder. It is the primary feed grain of the United States, and in Europe this is almost the only use of corn. Corn is also as a raw material in the manufacture of ethanol ethanol (ĕth`ənōl') or ethyl alcohol, CH₃CH₂
..... Click the link for more information. for fuel.

Bibliography

See P. C. Mangelsdorf, Corn (1974); J. C. Hudson, Making the Corn Belt (1994).

corn

or maize

Cereal plant (Zea mays) of the family Poaceae (or Gramineae). It originated in the New World and has been introduced globally. American Indians taught colonists to grow corn, including some varieties of yellow corn that are still popular as food, as well as varieties with red, blue, pink, and black kernels, often banded, spotted, or striped, that today are regarded as ornamental and in the U.S. are called Indian corn. The tall, annual grass has a stout, erect, solid stem and large narrow leaves with wavy margins. Corn is used as livestock feed, as human food, and as raw material in industry. Though it is a major food in many parts of the world, it is inferior to other cereals in nutritional value. Inedible parts of the plant are used in industry—stalks for paper and wallboard; husks for filling material; cobs for fuel, to make charcoal, and in the preparation of industrial solvents. Corn husks also have a long history of use in the folk arts for objects such as woven amulets and corn-husk dolls. Corn is one of the most widely distributed of the world's food plants. In the U.S. corn is the most important crop, but slightly more acres of soybeans are planted.

corn¹

a. a tall annual grass, Zea mays, cultivated for its yellow edible grains, which develop on a spike

b. the grain of this plant, used for food, fodder, and as a source of oil

corn²

a hardening or thickening of the skin around a central point in the foot, caused by pressure or friction