Difference between revisions of "Corn"
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Corn (''Zea mays''), also called ''maize,'' was first grown by Native Americans. It is used as food and many other products. | Corn (''Zea mays''), also called ''maize,'' was first grown by Native Americans. It is used as food and many other products. | ||
| − | Because of its tightly-packed kernels, corn is incapable | + | Because of its tightly-packed kernels, corn is incapable of reproducing without human aid. This is a result of [[microevolution]]. |
It can be grown for both a cash crop and nourishment for people and livestock. | It can be grown for both a cash crop and nourishment for people and livestock. | ||
Revision as of 00:14, March 12, 2007
Corn (Zea mays), also called maize, was first grown by Native Americans. It is used as food and many other products.
Because of its tightly-packed kernels, corn is incapable of reproducing without human aid. This is a result of microevolution.
It can be grown for both a cash crop and nourishment for people and livestock.
In the United States, there has recently been a boom in the use of corn to produce ethanol as automotive fuel. The result has been a rise in the price of corn, affecting its use for food and livestock feed.[1]
Corn is a good subject for genetic studies. The offspring of a pair of gametes consists of the individual kernels on a single cob. These kernels may display easily observed phenotypic variation such as color. In an ear of corn with two colors of kernel, the number of kernels of each color will often display the classic 3:1 Mendelian ratio.
Field corn varieties are grown primarily for livestock feed. Varieties grown for human consumption contain a gene that increases the sugar content and are known as sweet corn.
In 1983, Barbara McClintock won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for studies of the genetics of corn, specifically her 1948 discovery of mobile genetic elements in the corn genome.
Usage
The word maize always means the specific plant Zea mays. In the United States it much more commonly called "corn," as in corn-on-the-cob. In British usage, "corn" can mean any grain or kernel crop, specifically the staple crop of a particular region. It is important to understand this when reading English novels or studying English history (e.g. the Corn laws). In formal, academic, or scientific work that is written for an international audience it is common to use the word maize to avoid misunderstanding.
Maize is also the name for a color, an orange-yellow. According to a custom formalized in 1895, in university graduation ceremonies, graduates of a school of agriculture usually wear maize-colored tassels on their caps.[2]
Notes and references
- ↑ The New York Times, February 2, 2007[1]
- ↑ University of Idaho web page about academic regalia
