
:''This article is about the cereal. For the town, see Maize, Kansas.'' Maize (''Zea mays'' ssp. ''mays'') is a cereal that was domesticated in Mesoamerica. It is called corn in the United States, Canada, and Australia but there are corn in terminology. While certain maize varieties grow 7 m (23 ft) tall at certain locations, commercial maize has been bred for a high-end height of 2.5 m (9 ft). Sweet corn is usually shorter than field corn varieties. == Maize physiology == The stems look like bamboo cane and the joints are about 40–50 cm (16–20 inches) apart. Maize has a very distinct growth form, the lower leaves being like broad flags, 50–100 cm long and 5–10 cm wide (2–4 feet by 2–4 inches); the stems are erect, from 2–3 m (7–10 feet) in height, with many joints, casting off flag-leaves at every joint. Under these leaves and close to the stem grows the corn, covered over by several layers of leaves, and so closed in by them to the stem, that it does not show itself easily till there bursts out at the end of the ear a number of strings, called silk, that look like tufts of horsehair, at first green, and afterwards red or yellow. The top of the stem ends in a flower, called the tassle. For each silk on which pollen from the tassle lands, one kernel of corn is produced. Young ears can be consumed raw, cob, silk, and all; as the plant matures (usually during the summer months) the cob toughens and the silk dries to inedibility. By late August the kernels have dried out and become difficult to chew without cooking them tender first in boiling water. The kernel of corn has a pericarp of the fruit fused with the seed coat, typical of the Poaceae. It is close to a multiple fruit in structure, except that the individual fruits (the kernels) never fuse into a single mass. The grains are about the size of peas, and adhere in regular rows round a white pithy substance, which forms the ear. An ear contains from two to four hundred grains, and is from 10–25 cm (4–10 inches) in length. They are of various colors, blackish, red, white and yellow. When ground into flour, it yields more flour, with much less dietary bran, than wheat does. However, it lacks the protein gluten, and therefore makes baked goods with poor raising capability. == Origin of maize == Maize is a direct domestication of the teosinte ''Zea mays'' ssp. ''parviglumis'', native to the Balsas River Valley of southern Mexico, with up to 12% of its genetic material obtained from ''Zea mays'' ssp. ''mexicana'' through introgression. The term teosinte describes all species (biology) in the genus ''Zea'', excluding ''Zea mays'' ssp. ''mays''. Maize development is thought to have started from 7,500 to 12,000 years ago. Archaeological remains of the earliest maize cob, found at Guila Naquitz Cave in the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico, date back roughly 6,250 years. As a historical note, in the late 1930s, Paul Mangelsdorf suggested that domesticated maize was the result of a hybridization event between an unknown wild maize and ''Tripsacum''. However, the proposed role of the related genus ''Tripsacum'' in the origins of maize has been refuted by modern genetic analysis. The domestication of maize is of particular interest to researchers. It is unknown what precipitated its domestication, because the edible portion of the wild variety is too small to be worthwhile cultivating. It would have taken many generations of selective breeding in order to produce a plant with cobs large enough to eat. == Cultivation == [[Image:Corn production in Colorado.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Corn production in Colorado]] Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. While the United States produces almost half of the world's harvest, other top producing countries are as widespread as China, India, Brazil, France, Indonesia, and South Africa. Worldwide production was over 600 million metric tons in 2003, just slightly more than rice or wheat. Maize is planted in the spring to take advantage of spring rains. Its root system is shallow and the plant is dependent on steady rain or irrigation. In the United States, a good harvest was predicted traditionally if the corn was "knee-high by the Fourth of July", although modern hybrids often exceed this growth rate. Maize used as silage is harvested while the plant is green and the fruit unmatured. Otherwise, maize is left in the field very late in the autumn in order to dry thoroughly. In fact, it is sometimes not harvested until winter or even early spring. The importance of regular rain is shown in many parts of Africa, where periodic drought regularly causes famine by causing maize crop failure; the older traditional African native millet (which is however less palatable than maize, and much less productive in good years) would have survived and produced a small crop in these conditions. [[Image:Field, corn, Liechtenstein, Mountains, Alps, Vaduz, sky, clouds, landscape.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Field of maize in Liechtenstein]] Maize was planted by the Native Americans in hills, in a complex system known to some as the Three Sisters (agriculture) in which beans used the corn plant for support and squashes which provided ground cover to stop weeds. This method was replaced by single species hill planting where each hill 60–120 cm (2–4 feet) apart was planted with 3 or 4 seeds, a method still used by the home gardener. A later technique was ''checked corn'' where hills were placed 40 inches apart in each direction, allowing cultivators to run through the field in two directions. In more arid lands this was altered and seed were planted in the bottom of 10–12 cm (4–5 inch) deep furrows to collect water. Modern technique plants maize in rows which allows for cultivation while the plant is young. In North America, fields are often planted in a two crop rotation with a nitrogen-fixing crop, often soybeans. Sometimes a third crop, winter wheat is added to the rotation. Fields are usually plowed each year although no-till farming is increasing in use. Before about World War II, most maize was harvested by hand. This often involved large numbers of workers and associated social events. Some one and two row mechanical pickers were in use but the corn combine harvester did not get adopted until after the War. By hand or mechanical picker, the entire ear is harvested which then requires a separate operation of a corn sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole ears of corn were often stored in ''corn cribs'' which is a sufficient form for some livestock use. Some modern farms store maize in this manner and later shell it for sale in the off-season to capture better prices. The combine with a corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) cuts the stalk near the base and then separates the ear of corn from the stalk so that only the ear and husk enter the machinery. The combine separates the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels. [[Image:GEM corn.jpg|thumb|right|Exotic varieties of maize are collected to add genetic diversity when selectively breeding new domestic strains.]] == Pests of maize == ===Insect pests=== *Corn earworm (''Heliothis zea'') *Fall armyworm (''Spodoptera frugiperda'') *Common armyworm (''Pseudaletia unipuncta'') *Stalk borer (''Papaipema nebris'') *Corn leaf aphid (''Rhopalosiphum maidis'') *European corn borer (''Ostrinia nubilalis'') (ECB), the susceptibility of maize to the ECB and large crop losses led to the development of transgenic plants Bt corn expressing the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin. BtCorn is widely grown in the United States and has been approved for release in Europe. *Corn silkfly (''Euxesta stigmatis'') *Lesser cornstalk borer (''Elasmopalpus lignosellus'') *Corn delphacid (''Peregrinus maidis'') ===Diseases=== *Corn smut or common smut (''Ustilago maydis'') a fungal disease, known in Mexico as ''huitlacoche'', which is prized by some as a gourmet delicacy in itself. *Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus *Stewart's Wilt (''Pantoea stewartii'') *Common Rust (''Puccinia sorghi'') == Uses for maize == The primary use for corn (seed) in United States and Canada, is as a feed for livestock, while some is for the production of corn sweeteners like corn syrup, and the production of ethanol. Ethanol, a type of alcohol, is mostly used as an additive in gasoline to increase the octane rating. Human consumption of corn and corn meal constitute only a very small percentage of the United States and Canada production, but in Mexico its use for human consumption is very important as it is the main ingredient for Tortilla and many other dishes of Mexican food. Maize can also be prepared as hominy, in which the kernels are bleached with lye; or grits, which are simply coarsely ground corn. These are commonly eaten in U.S. Southern States, foods handed down from Native Americans. Another common food made from maize is corn flakes. The flour of maize is used to make cornbread and Mexican tortillas. Teosinte is used as fodder, and can also be popped as popcorn. As a food, maize (''Zea mays'' ssp. ''mays'') is used in various forms, with several major cultivar. The most important Cultivar Groups are: *Flour corn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Amylacea Group *Popcorn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Everta Group *Dent corn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Indentata Group *Flint corn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Indurata Group *Sweetcorn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Saccharata Group *Pod corn - ''Zea mays'' L. var. ''tunicata'' Larrañaga ex A. St. Hil Many scientists speculate that fuel ethanol will mostly be produced from switchgrass and other biomass sources in the future. Corn cobs are also used as a biomass fuel source. Maize is relatively cheap and home heating furnaces have been developed which uses maize kernels as a fuel. They feature a large hopper which feeds the uniformly sized corn kernels (or wood pellets or cherry pits) into the fire. Some forms of the plant are occasionally grown for ornamental use in the garden. For this purpose, variegated and coloured leaf forms, as well as those with colourful cobs are used. Corncobs can be hollowed out and treated to make inexpensive smoking pipes, first manufactured in the United States in 1869. In 1983, Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of transposons while studying maize. In 2005, research by the USDA Forest Service indicated that the rise in maize cultivation 500 to 1,000 years ago in the southeastern United States contributed to the decline of freshwater mussels, which are very sensitive to environmental changes. [http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/about/newsrelease/nr_2005-06-06-mussels.htm] {| align=center |- | | |} ==See also== *Protein per unit area *Detasseling ==References== *Ferro, D.N. and Weber, D.C. [http://www.eap.mcgill.ca/CPMP_1.htm Managing Sweet Corn Pests in Massachusetts] * [http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=42268 ITIS 42268] as of 2002-09-22 * [http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Zea.html Sorting Zea names] == External links == *[http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band1/tafel_088.html Image of Zea mays from Flora von Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz] *[http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Zea+mays Zea mays at Plants For A Future] *[http://www.iowacorn.org/cornuse/cornuse_3.html Usage of Iowa and U.S. Corn Crop] *[http://www.kallipolis.com/diet/food.php?id=11168&w=3 Corn nutrition information]
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\
==''Zea'' or ''Zea Mays''?== The sidebar contains several Zea genus, but the main article is highly focused on Zea Mays, especially ''Zea Mays subsp. mays''. Think we need a seperate page for Zea? User:Mackerm 17:21, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC) Should this article provide information about corn is grown now rather than relying on an article that is over 100 years old? == in what country? == "The corn will ripen in October or early November;" in what country? should this be replaced with seasons instead? - --User:Cyprus2k1 22:26, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC) == unrelated sentence?? == I removed this sentence because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the article: In 1940, Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of transposons while studying maize. User:Ike9898 15:31, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC) :It is an article about maize and someone got a Nobel Prize for studying maize. I don't see how it is unrelated. User:Rmhermen 22:20, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC) == Maize? == I've never heard anyone call this maize? It sounds made up. - User:Jerryseinfeld 22:30, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC) :Are you trolling? The second para gives a fairly good explanation of the different names used globally for this crop. The common name in America is corn, but maize is the Spanish name used in much of the rest of the world. External validation can be found at [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4008205.stm the BBC], [http://www.onelook.com/?w=maize any number of dictionaries] or some 3 million other web references on Google. -- User:Solipsist 23:14, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC) == Propagation == Maize cannot self seed, right? It depends upon cultivation for seed dispersal. This should probably be mentioned. Perhaps along with domestication history of maize in the first paragraph. == Baby Corn == Can somebody add some information (or write a new article) about baby corn please? I love that weird little freak of nature and would love to know more about it and its relation to regular corn. :''[from the IP who started the stub this week --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 20:54, 2005 Jan 6 (UTC)]'' == Tallest corn == According to [http://www.farmbureaukids.com/homework/homeworkhelper_districts/homeworkhelper_district7.html this site] "Don Radda of Washington grew the world's tallest corn stalk in 1946; it was thirty-one feet and three inches high." -- User:WormRunner | User talk:WormRunner 21:54, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC) :As interesting as this factoid is, does it really belong in an encyclopedia article?--User:Petaholmes 22:01, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::I put that in talk because the latest edit of the article was to remove a reference to 30 foot tall corn because User:Rmhermen could not find any source for it. I could have just reverted the article, but felt that putting it in talk first was more politic. -- User:WormRunner | User talk:WormRunner 22:54, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Terminology == I'm not sure I agree with all of the recent changes you made to the article. I thought the terminology section was informative and important but you removed it. User:Liblamb 23:15, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC) : I removed that section mostly in the spirit of "Wikipedia is not a dictionary", so that the article maize should be about the thing maize, rather than the word "maize". Furthermore, most of that text wasn't even about the word "maize", but about the word "corn", and redundant with text from the article corn (which unfortunately is also mostly about the word, but with perhaps more justification, because it is trying to be a disambiguation page). : Clarification of terminology is crucial when it is an aid to navigation or understanding, but the paragraph in question was not that. Language is a thing in the world, and can be encyclopedic, but that's why there are articles like American and British English differences. : — User:Pekinensis 00:39, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) :: I disagree also and returned it. It is important to explain what we are talking about before we go into details. User:Rmhermen 02:23, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC) : Why is it necessary to say that "corn" means "oats" in Scotland in order to talk about maize? — User:Pekinensis :I am beginning to see User:Pekinensis' point and have changed the article to acknowledge the variation in terms. Yet, I tried not to duplicate what the corn article says. User:Liblamb 23:09, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Informally known as corn == When reverting my insertion of the word "informally" into the first sentence, User:Bkonrad wrote: :''I dunno about Canada or Australia but it is almost exlusively known as corn in the U.S., which merits more than an "informally known as")'' I won't put it back, but I believe that in technical usage in the US, the plant is generally called maize. For example, a google search for "maize genome" turns up around [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22maize+genome%22 20,000 hits], most of which seem to be from US research institutions such as the [http://www.maizegdb.org Maize Genetics/Genomics Database] hosted by the University of Missouri, compared to around [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22corn+genome%22 3,500] for "corn genome", many of which seem to be from the popular press. Google also believes that the word "maize" appears [http://www.google.com/search?q=maize+site:gov 55,000] times on US government web pages, so I disagree with the phrase "almost exclusively". I can believe that it is almost exclusively known as corn at the market and at the dinner table, but that is why I used the word "informally". Perhaps a better wording would have been "in non-technical usage", but that puts even more undue emphasis on the question. If it were my article, it would read "Maize, often called corn,", and leave the regional usage trivia out altogether. — User:Pekinensis 02:34, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) In common usage in the U.S., I suspect that most people would not readily recognize the term "maize". And among those who did know, many would see it as somewhat exotic or even pretentious. I've no problem with the current "often called" phrasing, but if it is accurate, I think the description of regional variations is worth including, though perhaps it doesn't need to figure so prominently as the second paragraph. 02:14, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Maize:
Maize
Maize
Maize,_Kansas
Maize,_KS
Maizena
Maizet
Maize_corn
Maize_germ
Maize_mother
Maize
:''This article is about the cereal. For the town, see Maize, Kansas.'' Maize (''Zea mays'' ssp. ''mays'') is a cereal that was domesticated in Mesoamerica. It is called corn in the United States, Canada, and Australia but there are corn in terminology. While certain maize varieties grow 7 m (23 ft) tall at certain locations, commercial maize has been bred for a high-end height of 2.5 m (9 ft). Sweet corn is usually shorter than field corn varieties. == Maize physiology == The stems look like bamboo cane and the joints are about 40–50 cm (16–20 inches) apart. Maize has a very distinct growth form, the lower leaves being like broad flags, 50–100 cm long and 5–10 cm wide (2–4 feet by 2–4 inches); the stems are erect, from 2–3 m (7–10 feet) in height, with many joints, casting off flag-leaves at every joint. Under these leaves and close to the stem grows the corn, covered over by several layers of leaves, and so closed in by them to the stem, that it does not show itself easily till there bursts out at the end of the ear a number of strings, called silk, that look like tufts of horsehair, at first green, and afterwards red or yellow. The top of the stem ends in a flower, called the tassle. For each silk on which pollen from the tassle lands, one kernel of corn is produced. Young ears can be consumed raw, cob, silk, and all; as the plant matures (usually during the summer months) the cob toughens and the silk dries to inedibility. By late August the kernels have dried out and become difficult to chew without cooking them tender first in boiling water. The kernel of corn has a pericarp of the fruit fused with the seed coat, typical of the Poaceae. It is close to a multiple fruit in structure, except that the individual fruits (the kernels) never fuse into a single mass. The grains are about the size of peas, and adhere in regular rows round a white pithy substance, which forms the ear. An ear contains from two to four hundred grains, and is from 10–25 cm (4–10 inches) in length. They are of various colors, blackish, red, white and yellow. When ground into flour, it yields more flour, with much less dietary bran, than wheat does. However, it lacks the protein gluten, and therefore makes baked goods with poor raising capability. == Origin of maize == Maize is a direct domestication of the teosinte ''Zea mays'' ssp. ''parviglumis'', native to the Balsas River Valley of southern Mexico, with up to 12% of its genetic material obtained from ''Zea mays'' ssp. ''mexicana'' through introgression. The term teosinte describes all species (biology) in the genus ''Zea'', excluding ''Zea mays'' ssp. ''mays''. Maize development is thought to have started from 7,500 to 12,000 years ago. Archaeological remains of the earliest maize cob, found at Guila Naquitz Cave in the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico, date back roughly 6,250 years. As a historical note, in the late 1930s, Paul Mangelsdorf suggested that domesticated maize was the result of a hybridization event between an unknown wild maize and ''Tripsacum''. However, the proposed role of the related genus ''Tripsacum'' in the origins of maize has been refuted by modern genetic analysis. The domestication of maize is of particular interest to researchers. It is unknown what precipitated its domestication, because the edible portion of the wild variety is too small to be worthwhile cultivating. It would have taken many generations of selective breeding in order to produce a plant with cobs large enough to eat. == Cultivation == [[Image:Corn production in Colorado.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Corn production in Colorado]] Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. While the United States produces almost half of the world's harvest, other top producing countries are as widespread as China, India, Brazil, France, Indonesia, and South Africa. Worldwide production was over 600 million metric tons in 2003, just slightly more than rice or wheat. Maize is planted in the spring to take advantage of spring rains. Its root system is shallow and the plant is dependent on steady rain or irrigation. In the United States, a good harvest was predicted traditionally if the corn was "knee-high by the Fourth of July", although modern hybrids often exceed this growth rate. Maize used as silage is harvested while the plant is green and the fruit unmatured. Otherwise, maize is left in the field very late in the autumn in order to dry thoroughly. In fact, it is sometimes not harvested until winter or even early spring. The importance of regular rain is shown in many parts of Africa, where periodic drought regularly causes famine by causing maize crop failure; the older traditional African native millet (which is however less palatable than maize, and much less productive in good years) would have survived and produced a small crop in these conditions. [[Image:Field, corn, Liechtenstein, Mountains, Alps, Vaduz, sky, clouds, landscape.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Field of maize in Liechtenstein]] Maize was planted by the Native Americans in hills, in a complex system known to some as the Three Sisters (agriculture) in which beans used the corn plant for support and squashes which provided ground cover to stop weeds. This method was replaced by single species hill planting where each hill 60–120 cm (2–4 feet) apart was planted with 3 or 4 seeds, a method still used by the home gardener. A later technique was ''checked corn'' where hills were placed 40 inches apart in each direction, allowing cultivators to run through the field in two directions. In more arid lands this was altered and seed were planted in the bottom of 10–12 cm (4–5 inch) deep furrows to collect water. Modern technique plants maize in rows which allows for cultivation while the plant is young. In North America, fields are often planted in a two crop rotation with a nitrogen-fixing crop, often soybeans. Sometimes a third crop, winter wheat is added to the rotation. Fields are usually plowed each year although no-till farming is increasing in use. Before about World War II, most maize was harvested by hand. This often involved large numbers of workers and associated social events. Some one and two row mechanical pickers were in use but the corn combine harvester did not get adopted until after the War. By hand or mechanical picker, the entire ear is harvested which then requires a separate operation of a corn sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole ears of corn were often stored in ''corn cribs'' which is a sufficient form for some livestock use. Some modern farms store maize in this manner and later shell it for sale in the off-season to capture better prices. The combine with a corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) cuts the stalk near the base and then separates the ear of corn from the stalk so that only the ear and husk enter the machinery. The combine separates the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels. [[Image:GEM corn.jpg|thumb|right|Exotic varieties of maize are collected to add genetic diversity when selectively breeding new domestic strains.]] == Pests of maize == ===Insect pests=== *Corn earworm (''Heliothis zea'') *Fall armyworm (''Spodoptera frugiperda'') *Common armyworm (''Pseudaletia unipuncta'') *Stalk borer (''Papaipema nebris'') *Corn leaf aphid (''Rhopalosiphum maidis'') *European corn borer (''Ostrinia nubilalis'') (ECB), the susceptibility of maize to the ECB and large crop losses led to the development of transgenic plants Bt corn expressing the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin. BtCorn is widely grown in the United States and has been approved for release in Europe. *Corn silkfly (''Euxesta stigmatis'') *Lesser cornstalk borer (''Elasmopalpus lignosellus'') *Corn delphacid (''Peregrinus maidis'') ===Diseases=== *Corn smut or common smut (''Ustilago maydis'') a fungal disease, known in Mexico as ''huitlacoche'', which is prized by some as a gourmet delicacy in itself. *Maize Dwarf Mosaic Virus *Stewart's Wilt (''Pantoea stewartii'') *Common Rust (''Puccinia sorghi'') == Uses for maize == The primary use for corn (seed) in United States and Canada, is as a feed for livestock, while some is for the production of corn sweeteners like corn syrup, and the production of ethanol. Ethanol, a type of alcohol, is mostly used as an additive in gasoline to increase the octane rating. Human consumption of corn and corn meal constitute only a very small percentage of the United States and Canada production, but in Mexico its use for human consumption is very important as it is the main ingredient for Tortilla and many other dishes of Mexican food. Maize can also be prepared as hominy, in which the kernels are bleached with lye; or grits, which are simply coarsely ground corn. These are commonly eaten in U.S. Southern States, foods handed down from Native Americans. Another common food made from maize is corn flakes. The flour of maize is used to make cornbread and Mexican tortillas. Teosinte is used as fodder, and can also be popped as popcorn. As a food, maize (''Zea mays'' ssp. ''mays'') is used in various forms, with several major cultivar. The most important Cultivar Groups are: *Flour corn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Amylacea Group *Popcorn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Everta Group *Dent corn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Indentata Group *Flint corn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Indurata Group *Sweetcorn - ''Zea mays'' L. subsp. ''mays'' Saccharata Group *Pod corn - ''Zea mays'' L. var. ''tunicata'' Larrañaga ex A. St. Hil Many scientists speculate that fuel ethanol will mostly be produced from switchgrass and other biomass sources in the future. Corn cobs are also used as a biomass fuel source. Maize is relatively cheap and home heating furnaces have been developed which uses maize kernels as a fuel. They feature a large hopper which feeds the uniformly sized corn kernels (or wood pellets or cherry pits) into the fire. Some forms of the plant are occasionally grown for ornamental use in the garden. For this purpose, variegated and coloured leaf forms, as well as those with colourful cobs are used. Corncobs can be hollowed out and treated to make inexpensive smoking pipes, first manufactured in the United States in 1869. In 1983, Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of transposons while studying maize. In 2005, research by the USDA Forest Service indicated that the rise in maize cultivation 500 to 1,000 years ago in the southeastern United States contributed to the decline of freshwater mussels, which are very sensitive to environmental changes. [http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/about/newsrelease/nr_2005-06-06-mussels.htm] {| align=center |- | | |} ==See also== *Protein per unit area *Detasseling ==References== *Ferro, D.N. and Weber, D.C. [http://www.eap.mcgill.ca/CPMP_1.htm Managing Sweet Corn Pests in Massachusetts] * [http://www.itis.usda.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=42268 ITIS 42268] as of 2002-09-22 * [http://www.plantnames.unimelb.edu.au/Sorting/Zea.html Sorting Zea names] == External links == *[http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band1/tafel_088.html Image of Zea mays from Flora von Deutschland Österreich und der Schweiz] *[http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Zea+mays Zea mays at Plants For A Future] *[http://www.iowacorn.org/cornuse/cornuse_3.html Usage of Iowa and U.S. Corn Crop] *[http://www.kallipolis.com/diet/food.php?id=11168&w=3 Corn nutrition information]
Maize
==''Zea'' or ''Zea Mays''?== The sidebar contains several Zea genus, but the main article is highly focused on Zea Mays, especially ''Zea Mays subsp. mays''. Think we need a seperate page for Zea? User:Mackerm 17:21, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC) Should this article provide information about corn is grown now rather than relying on an article that is over 100 years old? == in what country? == "The corn will ripen in October or early November;" in what country? should this be replaced with seasons instead? - --User:Cyprus2k1 22:26, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC) == unrelated sentence?? == I removed this sentence because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the article: In 1940, Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of transposons while studying maize. User:Ike9898 15:31, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC) :It is an article about maize and someone got a Nobel Prize for studying maize. I don't see how it is unrelated. User:Rmhermen 22:20, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC) == Maize? == I've never heard anyone call this maize? It sounds made up. - User:Jerryseinfeld 22:30, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC) :Are you trolling? The second para gives a fairly good explanation of the different names used globally for this crop. The common name in America is corn, but maize is the Spanish name used in much of the rest of the world. External validation can be found at [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4008205.stm the BBC], [http://www.onelook.com/?w=maize any number of dictionaries] or some 3 million other web references on Google. -- User:Solipsist 23:14, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC) == Propagation == Maize cannot self seed, right? It depends upon cultivation for seed dispersal. This should probably be mentioned. Perhaps along with domestication history of maize in the first paragraph. == Baby Corn == Can somebody add some information (or write a new article) about baby corn please? I love that weird little freak of nature and would love to know more about it and its relation to regular corn. :''[from the IP who started the stub this week --User:JerzyUser talk:Jerzy 20:54, 2005 Jan 6 (UTC)]'' == Tallest corn == According to [http://www.farmbureaukids.com/homework/homeworkhelper_districts/homeworkhelper_district7.html this site] "Don Radda of Washington grew the world's tallest corn stalk in 1946; it was thirty-one feet and three inches high." -- User:WormRunner | User talk:WormRunner 21:54, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC) :As interesting as this factoid is, does it really belong in an encyclopedia article?--User:Petaholmes 22:01, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC) ::I put that in talk because the latest edit of the article was to remove a reference to 30 foot tall corn because User:Rmhermen could not find any source for it. I could have just reverted the article, but felt that putting it in talk first was more politic. -- User:WormRunner | User talk:WormRunner 22:54, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC) == Terminology == I'm not sure I agree with all of the recent changes you made to the article. I thought the terminology section was informative and important but you removed it. User:Liblamb 23:15, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC) : I removed that section mostly in the spirit of "Wikipedia is not a dictionary", so that the article maize should be about the thing maize, rather than the word "maize". Furthermore, most of that text wasn't even about the word "maize", but about the word "corn", and redundant with text from the article corn (which unfortunately is also mostly about the word, but with perhaps more justification, because it is trying to be a disambiguation page). : Clarification of terminology is crucial when it is an aid to navigation or understanding, but the paragraph in question was not that. Language is a thing in the world, and can be encyclopedic, but that's why there are articles like American and British English differences. : — User:Pekinensis 00:39, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) :: I disagree also and returned it. It is important to explain what we are talking about before we go into details. User:Rmhermen 02:23, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC) : Why is it necessary to say that "corn" means "oats" in Scotland in order to talk about maize? — User:Pekinensis :I am beginning to see User:Pekinensis' point and have changed the article to acknowledge the variation in terms. Yet, I tried not to duplicate what the corn article says. User:Liblamb 23:09, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) == Informally known as corn == When reverting my insertion of the word "informally" into the first sentence, User:Bkonrad wrote: :''I dunno about Canada or Australia but it is almost exlusively known as corn in the U.S., which merits more than an "informally known as")'' I won't put it back, but I believe that in technical usage in the US, the plant is generally called maize. For example, a google search for "maize genome" turns up around [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22maize+genome%22 20,000 hits], most of which seem to be from US research institutions such as the [http://www.maizegdb.org Maize Genetics/Genomics Database] hosted by the University of Missouri, compared to around [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22corn+genome%22 3,500] for "corn genome", many of which seem to be from the popular press. Google also believes that the word "maize" appears [http://www.google.com/search?q=maize+site:gov 55,000] times on US government web pages, so I disagree with the phrase "almost exclusively". I can believe that it is almost exclusively known as corn at the market and at the dinner table, but that is why I used the word "informally". Perhaps a better wording would have been "in non-technical usage", but that puts even more undue emphasis on the question. If it were my article, it would read "Maize, often called corn,", and leave the regional usage trivia out altogether. — User:Pekinensis 02:34, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) In common usage in the U.S., I suspect that most people would not readily recognize the term "maize". And among those who did know, many would see it as somewhat exotic or even pretentious. I've no problem with the current "often called" phrasing, but if it is accurate, I think the description of regional variations is worth including, though perhaps it doesn't need to figure so prominently as the second paragraph. 02:14, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
M
MA | MB | MC | MD | ME | MF | MG | MH | MI | MJ | MK | ML | MN | MO | MP | MR | MS | MT | MU | MW | MX | MY | MZ |Words begining with Maize:
Maize
Maize
Maize,_Kansas
Maize,_KS
Maizena
Maizet
Maize_corn
Maize_germ
Maize_mother
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