MAIZE (Zea Mays)
Maize, Zea Mays (corn) is the most abundantly produced cereal in the world, it is a native Taino word meaning “Sacred mother” or “giver of life”. Except for Antarctica maize is produced on every continent. Grain is used as a major ingredient in many food items like cereals, potato chips, etc. Even juices and soft drinks contain sweeteners from the grain, a bushel (about 56 pounds) can sweeten 400 can of soft drinks. Corn is measured in bushels, one bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds.
About 50 species exist and consist of different textures, colors, sizes, and grain shapes. Yellow, white and red is the most cultivated maize types. Maize is being used For animal feed, corn ethanol, corn syrup, and corn starch, it is of many types like sweet corn, yellow/white grain, popcorn, waxy corn, baby corn, quality protein corn, etc.
Globally maize is known as a queen of cereals because of its highest genetic yield potential. All parts of the crops can be used for food and non-food products.
The stalk of maize measures 8 to 10 feet tall, however, the height depends on the variety and the environment, the world’s record for the tallest stalk is over 33 feet. Corn kernels are the plant’s seeds while the ear or cob makes up part of the flower on average an ear of corn has 16 rows and 800 kernels.
The United States is the largest corn producer in the world. 36% of all the corn production in the USA is for livestock feed, while 40% goes for biofuels like ethanol.
Maize was once considered so valuable that people traded things like meals and furs for it instead of money. Your toothpaste has corn in it, sorbitol a corn product is used to bulk up toothpaste.
Eating corn can have health benefits like helping control diabetes and preventing heart problems.
To know a fresh corn the husk of the corn should be green with a golden tassel. If the stalk end is brown, the corn is not fresh.
In this article we’ve mentioned some words like kernels , ear etc. Here is what they do mean…
Ear or Cob: protected by a husk of tightly wrapped leaves
Kernels: the plant’s seed and the part you eat
Husk: the tightly-wrapped leaves that cover the ear of corn
Roots: these go deep into the soil and carry food and water to the corn plant
Silk: long soft threads at the top of the ear of corn
Stalk: the stem of a corn plant
Tassel: the flower at the very top of the plant
Hope you enjoyed reading this article, have a productive day ahead.