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79-401: Cuncos cultivated maize , potatoes and quinoa and raised chilihueques . Their economy was complemented by travels during spring and summer to the coast where they gathered shellfish and hunted sea lions . They were said to live in large rukas . Cuncos were organized in small local chiefdoms forming a complex system intermarried families or clans with local allegiance. The details of

158-814: A conventional breeding program to provide optimized strains. The program began in the 1980s. Hybrid seeds are distributed in Africa by its Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project. Tropical landraces remain an important and underused source of resistance alleles – both those for disease and for herbivores . Such alleles can then be introgressed into productive varieties. Rare alleles for this purpose were discovered by Dao and Sood, both in 2014. In 2018, Zerka Rashid of CIMMYT used its association mapping panel, developed for tropical drought tolerance traits. to find new genomic regions providing sorghum downy mildew resistance , and to further characterize known differentially methylated regions . Genetically modified maize

237-403: A corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) does not cut the stalk; it simply pulls the stalk down. The stalk continues downward and is crumpled into a mangled pile on the ground, where it usually is left to become organic matter for the soil . The ear of maize is too large to pass between slots in a plate as the snap rolls pull the stalk away, leaving only the ear and husk to enter

316-583: A failure as Mapuches who were expected to aid the Spanish as Indian auxiliaries according to the Parliament of Boroa did not support the Spanish expedition. While away from Valdivia hostile local Mapuches killed twelve Spanish. The expedition from Valdivia soon ran out of supplies and decided to return to Valdivia without having confronted the Cuncos. The expedition from Carelmapu was more successful reaching

395-408: A large cob. Yellow maizes derive their color from carotenoids ; red maizes are colored by anthocyanins and phlobaphenes ; and orange and green varieties may contain combinations of these pigments. Maize has short-day photoperiodism , meaning that it requires nights of a certain length to flower. Flowering further requires enough warm days above 10 °C (50 °F). The control of flowering

474-499: A measure of protection against a wide range of pests. Because of its shallow roots, maize is susceptible to droughts, intolerant of nutrient-deficient soils, and prone to being uprooted by severe winds. Maize is diploid with 20 chromosomes . 83% of allelic variation within the genome derives from its teosinte ancestors, primarily due to the freedom of Zea species to outcross . Barbara McClintock used maize to validate her transposon theory of "jumping genes", for which she won

553-638: A place but a condition, a savage rather than a civilized grain". International groups such as the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International consider maize the preferred common name. The word maize is used by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization , and in the names of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center of Mexico, the Indian Institute of Maize Research,

632-601: A plant that uses C 4 carbon fixation , maize is a considerably more water-efficient crop than plants that use C 3 carbon fixation such as alfalfa and soybeans . Maize is most sensitive to drought at the time of silk emergence, when the flowers are ready for pollination. In the United States, a good harvest was traditionally predicted if the maize was "knee-high by the Fourth of July ", although modern hybrids generally exceed this growth rate. Maize used for silage

711-520: A result either of women's weak character or their shame at having been abused. Women in captivity gave birth to a large number of mestizos , who were rejected by the Spanish, but accepted among the Mapuches. These women's children may have had a significant demographic impact on Mapuche society, which had been ravaged by war and epidemic disease. The capture of women during the Destruction of

790-753: Is a major pest of maize in Asia. Destruction of the Seven Cities The Destruction of the Seven Cities ( Spanish : Destrucción de las siete ciudades ) is a term used in Chilean historiography to refer to the destruction or abandonment of seven major Spanish outposts in southern Chile around 1600, caused by the Mapuche and Huilliche uprising of 1598. The Destruction of the Seven Cities, in traditional historiography, marks

869-426: Is a problem in Asia. Some fungal diseases of maize produce potentially dangerous mycotoxins such as aflatoxin . In the United States, major diseases include tar spot , bacterial leaf streak , gray leaf spot , northern corn leaf blight, and Goss's wilt ; in 2022, the most damaging disease was tar spot, which caused losses of 116.8 million bushels . Maize sustains a billion dollars' worth of losses annually in

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948-408: Is composed of transposons , contains 32,540 genes. Much of it has been duplicated and reshuffled by helitrons , a group of transposable elements within maize's DNA. Maize breeding in prehistory resulted in large plants producing large ears. Modern breeding began with individuals who selected highly productive varieties in their fields and then sold seed to other farmers. James L. Reid was one of

1027-537: Is cultivated throughout the world; a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. In 2020, world production was 1.1 billion tonnes. It is afflicted by many pests and diseases ; two major insect pests, European corn borer and corn rootworms , have each caused annual losses of a billion dollars in the US. Modern plant breeding has greatly increased output and qualities such as nutrition, drought tolerance, and tolerance of pests and diseases. Much maize

1106-414: Is harvested while the plant is green and the fruit immature. Sweet corn is harvested in the "milk stage", after pollination but before starch has formed, between late summer and early to mid-autumn. Field maize is left in the field until very late in the autumn to thoroughly dry the grain, and may, in fact, sometimes not be harvested until winter or even early spring. The importance of sufficient soil moisture

1185-533: Is now genetically modified . As a food, maize is used to make a wide variety of dishes including Mexican tortillas and tamales , Italian polenta , and American hominy grits . Maize protein is low in some essential amino acids , and the niacin it contains only becomes available if freed by alkali treatment . In Mesoamerica, maize is deified as a maize god and depicted in sculptures. Maize requires human intervention for it to propagate. The kernels of its naturally-propagating teosinte ancestor fall off

1264-468: Is set genetically; the physiological mechanism involves the phytochrome system. Tropical cultivars can be problematic if grown in higher latitudes, as the longer days can make the plants grow tall instead of setting seed before winter comes. On the other hand, growing tall rapidly could be convenient for producing biofuel. Immature maize shoots accumulate a powerful antibiotic substance, 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one ( DIMBOA ), which provides

1343-560: Is shown in many parts of Africa, where periodic drought regularly causes maize crop failure and consequent famine . Although it is grown mainly in wet, hot climates, it can thrive in cold, hot, dry or wet conditions, meaning that it is an extremely versatile crop. Maize was planted by the Native Americans in small hills of soil, in the polyculture system called the Three Sisters . Maize provided support for beans ;

1422-557: Is the domesticated variant of the four species of teosintes , which are its crop wild relatives . The teosinte origin theory was proposed by the Russian botanist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov in 1931, and the American Nobel Prize -winner George Beadle in 1932. The two plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and teosinte being a short, bushy plant. The difference between

1501-405: Is the leaf most closely associated with a particular developing ear. This leaf and those above it contribute over three quarters of the carbohydrate ( starch ) that fills the grain. The grains are usually yellow or white in modern varieties; other varieties have orange, red, brown, blue , purple , or black grains. They are arranged in 8 to 32 rows around the cob; there can be up to 1200 grains on

1580-612: The Balsas River valley in Mexico's southwestern highlands, as the crop wild relative genetically most similar to modern maize. The middle part of the short Balsas River valley is the likely location of early domestication. Stone milling tools with maize residue have been found in an 8,700 year old layer of deposits in a cave not far from Iguala, Guerrero . Doebley and colleagues showed in 2002 that maize had been domesticated only once, about 9,000 years ago, and then spread throughout

1659-640: The Biobío River : Santa Cruz de Coya (1599), Santa María la Blanca de Valdivia (1599, reoccupied in 1602 and abandoned again in 1604), San Andrés de Los Infantes (1599), La Imperial (1600), Santa María Magdalena de Villa Rica (1602), San Mateo de Osorno (1603), and San Felipe de Araucan (1604). Contemporary chronicler Alonso González de Nájera writes that Mapuches killed more than 3,000 Spanish and took over 500 women as captives. Many children and Spanish clergy were also captured. Skilled artisans, renegade Spanish, and women were generally spared by

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1738-499: The Destruction of Osorno the Cuncos had bad relations with the Spanish settlements of Calbuco and Carelmapu formed by exiles from Osorno and loyalist Indians . Indeed, the area between Reloncaví Sound and Maipué River was depopulated as a consequence of this conflict that not only included warfare but slave raiding too. On March 21, 1651, Spanish ship San José aimed to the newly re-established Spanish city of Valdivia

1817-520: The 17th century prompted comparison to the Eighty Year's War , with Chile, in the view of Diego de Rosales , having turned into an "Indian Flanders" ( Flandes indiano ). Purén indómito , a contemporary literary chronicle (1598–1600) which describes the events surrounding the Destruction of the Seven Cities, is notable for its realistic and unvarnished commentary, and for its criticism of both Spanish and Mapuche actions. Purén indómito , along with

1896-607: The 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine . Maize remains an important model organism for genetics and developmental biology . The MADS-box motif is involved in the development of maize flowers. The Maize Genetics and Genomics Database is funded by the US Department of Agriculture to support maize research. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center maintains a large collection of maize accessions tested and cataloged for insect resistance. In 2005,

1975-662: The Americas. Maize pollen dated to 7,300 years ago from San Andres, Tabasco has been found on the Caribbean coast. A primitive corn was being grown in southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America 7,000 years ago. Archaeological remains of early maize ears, found at Guila Naquitz Cave in the Oaxaca Valley , are roughly 6,250 years old; the oldest ears from caves near Tehuacan , Puebla, are 5,450 years old. Around 4,500 years ago, maize began to spread to

2054-759: The Araucanians and Huilliche . The Cuncos lived in the Chilean Coast Range and its foothills. Proper Huilliches lived east of them in the flatlands of the Central Valley . There are differing views on the southern extent of the Cunco lands, some accounts mention the Maullín River as the limit while other say the Cuncos inhabited the land all the way to the middle of Chiloé Island . A theory postulated by chronicler José Pérez García holds

2133-479: The B-vitamin niacin , the lack of which caused pellagra . Once alkali processing and dietary variety were understood and applied, pellagra disappeared in the developed world. The development of high- lysine maize and the promotion of a more balanced diet have contributed to its demise. Pellagra still exists in food-poor areas and refugee camps where people survive on donated maize. The name maize derives from

2212-414: The Cuncos as inhabiting the area between Valdivia and Chiloé. Tapping on Febrés work Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro writes that Cuncos inhabit the mainland north of Chiloé Archipelago as far north as to limit with "Araucanian barbarians" (Mapuche from Araucanía ). Hervás y Panduro list them as one of three "Chilean barbarians" groups inhabiting the territory between latitudes 36° S and 41° S, the other being

2291-483: The Cuncos distinguished themselves from the nearby Huilliches of the plains and the southern Cuncos of Maullín and Chiloé Archipelago by their staunch resistance to Spanish rule. That the Cuncos were a distinct group is also shown, according to Urbina, by the fact that the colonial Spanish also considered them the most barbarian of the southern Mapuche groups and that the Cuncos and (non-Cunco) Huilliche considered themselves different. Jesuit Andrés Febrés mentions

2370-611: The Cuncos settled in Chiloé Island in Pre-Hispanic times as consequence of a push from more northern Huilliches who in turn were being displaced by Mapuches . The indigenous inhabitants of the northern half of Chiloé Island, of Mapuche culture, are variously referred as Cunco, Huilliche or Veliche . The lands of the Cunco were described in colonial sources as rainy and rich in swamps , rivers, streams with thick forests with stout and tall trees. Flat and cleared terrain

2449-709: The Maize Association of Australia, the National Maize Association of Nigeria, the National Maize Association of Ghana, the Maize Trust of South Africa, and the Zimbabwe Seed Maize Association. Maize is a tall annual grass with a single stem, ranging in height from 1.2 m (4 ft) to 4 m (13 ft). The long narrow leaves arise from the nodes or joints, alternately on opposite sides on

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2528-488: The Mapuches. In the case of the women it was, in the words of González de Nájera, "to take advantage of them" (Spanish: aprovecharse de ellas ). While some Spanish women were recovered in Spanish raids, others were set free only in agreements following the Parliament of Quillín in 1641. Some Spanish women became accustomed to Mapuche life and stayed voluntarily among the Mapuche. The Spanish understood this phenomenon as

2607-569: The Parliament of Boroa. The indios cuncos were the subject of Juan de Salazar 's failed slave raid in 1654 that ended in a Spanish defeat at the Battle of Río Bueno . This battle served as catalyst for the devastating Mapuche uprising of 1655 . Albeit the Cuncos had occasional conflicts with the Spanish from Valdivia as in the 1650s and 1750s , over-all relations towards the Spanish of Calbuco, Carelmapu and Chiloé were more hostile. Indeed,

2686-652: The Seven Cities initiated a tradition of abductions of Spanish women in the 17th century by Mapuches. The collapse of the Spanish cities in the south following the battle of Curalaba (1598) meant, for the Spaniards, the loss of their main sources of gold and indigenous labor. After those dramatic years, the colony of Chile became concentrated in Central Chile , which was increasingly populated, explored and economically exploited. Much land in Central Chile

2765-403: The Seven Cities reduced the settlements at Chiloé to an exclave, cut off from the remainder of Spanish Chile. The region, therefore, developed as an isolated and highly peripheral Spanish outpost. The abandoned city of Valdivia turned into an attractive site for Spain's enemies to control since it would allow them to establish a base amidst Spain's Chilean possessions. Recognizing this situation

2844-519: The Spanish at the Parliament of Las Canoas . Maize Maize / m eɪ z / ( Zea mays ), also known as corn in North American English , is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain . It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte . Native Americans planted it alongside beans and squashes in the Three Sisters polyculture . The leafy stalk of

2923-515: The Spanish attempted to reoccupy Valdivia in the 1630s but were thwarted by hostile Mapuches. The Dutch briefly occupied Valdivia in 1643 . Having been told that the Dutch had plans to return to the location, the Spanish viceroy in Peru sent 1,000 men in twenty ships (and 2,000 men by land, who never made it) in 1644 to resettle Valdivia and fortify it. The precarity of Spanish control over Chile in

3002-531: The Spanish form maíz of the Taíno mahis . The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus used the common name maize as the species epithet in Zea mays . The name maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage as a common name because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn , which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region. Most countries primarily use

3081-616: The Spanish in Valdivia were able to slowly advance their positions by trade and land purchases in the second half of the 18th century. Eventually Spanish domains reached all the way from Valdivia to Bueno River . Amidst a period of renewed conflict in 1770 the Spanish destroyed a road the Cuncos had built from Punta Galera to Corral to attack the Spanish. Following a devastating raid of Tomás de Figueroa through Futahuillimapu in 1792, Cunco apo ülmen Paylapan ( Paill’apangi ) sent messengers ( wesrkin ) to participate in negotiations with

3160-562: The US National Science Foundation , Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy formed a consortium to sequence the maize genome . The resulting DNA sequence data was deposited immediately into GenBank , a public repository for genome-sequence data. Sequencing of the maize genome was completed in 2008. In 2009, the consortium published results of its sequencing effort. The genome, 85% of which

3239-534: The US from each of two major insect pests , namely the European corn borer or ECB ( Ostrinia nubilalis ) and corn rootworms ( Diabrotica spp ) western corn rootworm , northern corn rootworm , and southern corn rootworm . Another serious pest is the fall armyworm ( Spodoptera frugiperda ). The maize weevil ( Sitophilus zeamais ) is a serious pest of stored grain. The Northern armyworm, Oriental armyworm or Rice ear-cutting caterpillar ( Mythimna separata )

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3318-471: The basis of the territory they inhabited. Ximena Urbina stresses that the differences between the southern Mapuche groups are poorly known but that their customs and language appear to have been the same. The Cuncos, she claims, are ethnically and culturally significantly more distant from the Araucanian Mapuche than neighboring (non-Cunco) Huilliches. Urbina also notes that the core group of

3397-418: The beans provided nitrogen derived from nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria which live on the roots of beans and other legumes ; and squashes provided ground cover to stop weeds and inhibit evaporation by providing shade over the soil. Sweet corn, harvested earlier than maize grown for grain, grows to maturity in a period of from 60 to 100 days according to variety. An extended sweet corn harvest, picked at

3476-613: The body of Christ. Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates. It was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbus's voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. By the 17th century, it was a common peasant food in Southern Europe. By the 18th century, it was the chief food of the southern French and Italian peasantry, especially as polenta in Italy. When maize

3555-577: The cob on their own, while those of domesticated maize do not. All maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Maize spread from this region to the lowlands and over the Americas along two major paths. The centre of domestication was most likely the Balsas River valley of south-central Mexico. Maize reached highland Ecuador at least 8000 years ago. It reached lower Central America by 7600 years ago, and

3634-425: The earliest and most successful, developing Reid's Yellow Dent in the 1860s. These early efforts were based on mass selection (a row of plants is grown from seeds of one parent), and the choosing of plants after pollination (which means that only the female parents are known). Later breeding efforts included ear to row selection (C. G. Hopkins c. 1896), hybrids made from selected inbred lines (G. H. Shull, 1909), and

3713-473: The end of the Conquest period and the beginning of the proper colonial period . The Destruction of the Seven Cities had a long-lasting impact on the history of the Mapuche and the history of Chile , determining the shape of future Colonial Spanish–Mapuche relations, e.g. by causing the development of a Spanish–Mapuche frontier . Decades prior to these events, some conquistadors and settlers recognised

3792-413: The entire ear is harvested, which requires a separate operation of a maize sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole ears of maize were often stored in corn cribs , sufficient for some livestock feeding uses. Today corn cribs with whole ears, and corn binders, are less common because most modern farms harvest the grain from the field with a combine harvester and store it in bins . The combine with

3871-774: The expansion of the Inca Empire , maize was traded and transported as far south as 40° S in Melinquina, Lácar Department , Argentina, probably brought across the Andes from Chile. After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize, and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe . Spanish settlers much preferred wheat bread to maize. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for communion bread, since in Christian belief at that time only wheat could undergo transubstantiation and be transformed into

3950-399: The fragility of Spanish rule in southern Chile. In 1576, Melchior Calderón wrote to the king of Spain arguing for diminishing the number of cities in southern Chile by merging them, he proposed to merge Concepción , Angol , and Tucapel into one and La Imperial and Villarrica into another one. The revolt was triggered by the news of the Battle of Curalaba on 23 December 1598, where

4029-532: The highly successful double cross hybrids using four inbred lines ( D. F. Jones c. 1918, 1922). University-supported breeding programs were especially important in developing and introducing modern hybrids. Since the 1940s, the best strains of maize have been first-generation hybrids made from inbred strains that have been optimized for specific traits, such as yield, nutrition, drought, pest and disease tolerance. Both conventional cross-breeding and genetic engineering have succeeded in increasing output and reducing

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4108-550: The history of the word corn in North America that "[t]o say the word corn is to plunge into the tragi-farcical mistranslations of language and history". Similar to the British usage, the Spanish referred to maize as panizo , a generic term for cereal grains, as did Italians with the term polenta . The British later referred to maize as Turkey wheat, Turkey corn, or Indian corn; Fussell comments that "they meant not

4187-431: The identity of the Cuncos is not fully clear. José Bengoa defines "Cunco" as a category of indigenous Mapuche-Huilliche people in southern Chile used by the Spanish in colonial times . The Spanish referred to them as indios cuncos . Eugenio Alcamán cautions that the term "Cunco" in Spanish documents may not correspond to an ethnic group since they were defined, like other denominations for indigenous groups, chiefly on

4266-419: The machinery. The combine separates the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels. Drying is vital to prevent or at least reduce damage by mould fungi, which contaminate the grain with mycotoxins . Aspergillus and Fusarium spp. are the most common mycotoxin sources, and accordingly important in agriculture. If the moisture content of the harvested grain is too high, grain dryers are used to reduce

4345-413: The milk stage, can be arranged either by planting a selection of varieties which ripen earlier and later, or by planting different areas at fortnightly intervals. Maize harvested as a grain crop can be kept in the field a relatively long time, even months, after the crop is ready to harvest; it can be harvested and stored in the husk leaves if kept dry. Before World War II , most maize in North America

4424-427: The moisture content by blowing heated air through the grain. This can require large amounts of energy in the form of combustible gases ( propane or natural gas ) and electricity to power the blowers. Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. In 2020, total world production was 1.16 billion tonnes , led by the United States with 31.0% of

4503-501: The need for cropland, pesticides, water and fertilizer. There is conflicting evidence to support the hypothesis that maize yield potential has increased over the past few decades. This suggests that changes in yield potential are associated with leaf angle, lodging resistance, tolerance of high plant density, disease/pest tolerance, and other agronomic traits rather than increase of yield potential per individual plant. Certain varieties of maize have been bred to produce many ears; these are

4582-400: The new crop. The rise in maize cultivation 500 to 1,000 years ago in what is now the southeastern United States corresponded with a decline of freshwater mussels , which are very sensitive to environmental changes. Because it is cold-intolerant, in the temperate zones maize must be planted in the spring. Its root system is generally shallow, so the plant is dependent on soil moisture. As

4661-465: The north. In the United States, maize was first cultivated at several sites in New Mexico and Arizona about 4,100 years ago. During the first millennium AD, maize cultivation spread more widely in the areas north. In particular, the large-scale adoption of maize agriculture and consumption in eastern North America took place about A.D. 900. Native Americans cleared large forest and grassland areas for

4740-460: The plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen , and female inflorescences called ears . The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern commercial varieties, these are usually yellow or white; other varieties can be of many colors. Maize relies on humans for its propagation. Since the Columbian exchange , it has become a staple food in many parts of

4819-760: The presence of Starlink genetically modified corn, which had been approved only for animal consumption. The maize genus Zea is relatively closely related to sorghum , both being in the PACMAD clade of Old World grasses, and much more distantly to rice and wheat , which are in the other major group of grasses, the BOP clade . It is closely related to Tripsacum , gamagrass. various grasses e.g. fescue , ryegrass Hordeum (barley) Triticum (wheat) Oryza (rice) Pennisetum (fountaingrasses) Sorghum (sorghum) Tripsacum (gamagrass) Zea mays (maize) other Zea species ( teosintes ) Maize

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4898-552: The refugees were assigned to two new settlements, Calbuco and Carelmapu . Yanakuna loyal to the Spanish in these difficult times were rewarded with exemption from encomienda labour, and formed into a militia with a salary from the Real Situado . Thus, they became known as Indios reyunos , literally meaning "Royal Indians" or "Kingly Indians". 300 of the initial 600 indios reyunos settled in Calbuco. The Destruction of

4977-409: The site of abandoned city of Osorno . Here the Spanish were approached by Huilliches who gave them three caciques who were allegedly involved in the looting and murder of the wrecked Spanish. Governor of Chile Antonio de Acuña Cabrera planned a new Spanish punitive expedition against the Cuncos but was dissuaded by Jesuits who warned him that any large military assault would endanger the accords of

5056-491: The source of the " baby corn " used as a vegetable in Asian cuisine . A fast-flowering variety named mini-maize was developed to aid scientific research, as multiple generations can be obtained in a single year. One strain called olotón has evolved a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing microbes, which provides the plant with 29%–82% of its nitrogen. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) operates

5135-587: The south made Concepción assume the role of "military capital" of Chile. This informal role was given by the establishment of the Spanish Army of Arauco in the city which was financed by a payments of silver from Potosí called Real Situado . Santiago located at some distance from the war zone remained the political capital since 1578. When Valdivia and Osorno were destroyed, Spanish settlers and loyal yanakuna marched south, evading hostile Cuncos and Huilliches. Reaching Chacao Channel next to Chiloé ,

5214-415: The stalk. Maize is monoecious , with separate male and female flowers on the same plant. At the top of the stem is the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers; their anthers release pollen, which is dispersed by wind . Like other pollen, it is an allergen , but most of it falls within a few meters of the tassel and the risk is largely restricted to farm workers. The female inflorescence, some way down

5293-425: The stem from the tassel, is first seen as a silk, a bundle of soft tubular hairs , one for the carpel in each female flower, which develops into a kernel (often called a seed. Botanically, as in all grasses, it is a fruit, fused with the seed coat to form a caryopsis ) when it is pollinated. A whole female inflorescence develops into an ear or corncob , enveloped by multiple leafy layers or husks. The ear leaf

5372-608: The term maize , and the name corn is used mainly in the United States and a handful of other English-speaking countries. In countries that primarily use the term maize , the word corn may denote any cereal crop, varying geographically with the local staple , such as wheat in England and oats in Scotland or Ireland. The usage of corn for maize started as a shortening of " Indian corn " in 18th-century North America. The historian of food Betty Fussell writes in an article on

5451-472: The total (table). China produced 22.4% of the global total. Many pests can affect maize growth and development, including invertebrates, weeds, and pathogens. Maize is susceptible to a large number of fungal, bacterial, and viral plant diseases . Those of economic importance include diseases of the leaf, smuts such as corn smut , ear rots and stalk rots. Northern corn leaf blight damages maize throughout its range, whereas banded leaf and sheath blight

5530-500: The two is largely controlled by differences in just two genes, called grassy tillers-1 ( gt1 , A0A317YEZ1 ) and teosinte branched-1 ( tb1 , Q93WI2 ). In the late 1930s, Paul Mangelsdorf suggested that domesticated maize was the result of a hybridization event between an unknown wild maize and a species of Tripsacum , a related genus; this has been refuted by modern genetic testing . In 2004, John Doebley identified Balsas teosinte, Zea mays subsp. parviglumis , native to

5609-589: The valleys of the Colombian Andes between 7000 and 6000 years ago. The earliest maize plants grew a single, small ear per plant. The Olmec and Maya cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica ; they cooked, ground and processed it through nixtamalization . By 3000 years ago, maize was central to Olmec culture, including their calendar, language, and myths. The Mapuche people of south-central Chile cultivated maize along with quinoa and potatoes in pre-Hispanic times. Before

5688-401: The vice toqui Pelantaru and his lieutenants, Anganamón and Guaiquimilla, with three hundred men ambushed and killed the Spanish governor Martín García Óñez de Loyola and nearly all his companions. Over the next few years, the Mapuche were able to destroy or force the abandonment of many cities and minor settlements including all seven of the Spanish cities in Mapuche territory south of

5767-576: The world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat and rice . Much maize is used for animal feed , whether as grain or as the whole plant, which can either be baled or made into the more palatable silage . Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are grown for human consumption, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed, for uses such as cornmeal or masa , corn starch , corn syrup , pressing into corn oil , alcoholic beverages like bourbon whiskey , and as chemical feedstocks including ethanol and other biofuels . Maize

5846-465: Was cleared with fire during this period. On the contrary, open fields in southern Chile were overgrown as indigenous populations declined due to diseases introduced by the Spanish and intermittent warfare. The loss of the cities meant Spanish settlements in Chile became increasingly rural, with the hacienda growing in economic and social importance. The establishment of a Spanish-Mapuche frontier in

5925-458: Was harvested by hand. This involved a large number of workers and associated social events (husking or shucking bees ). From the 1890s onward, some machinery became available to partially mechanize the processes, such as one- and two-row mechanical pickers (picking the ear, leaving the stover ) and corn binders, which are reaper-binders designed specifically for maize. The latter produce sheaves that can be shocked . By hand or mechanical picker,

6004-425: Was introduced into Western farming systems, it was welcomed for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever it had become a staple food . Indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali -water — made with ashes and lime — since at least 1200–1500 BC, creating the process of nixtamalization. They did this to liberate the corn hulls, but coincidentally it also liberated

6083-466: Was one of the 26 genetically engineered food crops grown commercially in 2016. The vast majority of this is Bt maize . Genetically modified maize has been grown since 1997 in the United States and Canada; by 2016, 92% of the US maize crop was genetically modified. As of 2011, herbicide-tolerant maize and insect-resistant maize varieties were each grown in over 20 countries. In September 2000, up to $ 50 million worth of food products were recalled due to

6162-519: Was pushed by storms into coasts inhabited by the Cuncos south of Valdivia. There the ship ran aground and while most of the crew managed to survive the wreck nearby Cuncos killed them and took possession of the valuable cargo. The Spanish made fruitless efforts to recover anything left in wreck. Two punitive expeditions were assembled one started in Valdivia advancing south and the other in Carelmapu advancing north. The expedition from Valdivia turned into

6241-449: Was scarce and local roads very narrow and of poor quality. The Cuncos should not be confused with Cuncos from the locality of Cunco further north. Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro mention the language of cuncos as an accent or dialect similar to "Chiloense", the language of the indigenous people of Chiloé Archipelago , asserting the languages of Huilliches, Cuncos, Pehuenches and Araucanians (Mapuche) were mutually intelligible. Ever since

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