Maize

:This article is about the cereal. For the town, see Maize, Kansas.

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.

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The kernel of corn has a pericarp of the fruit fused with the seed coat, typical of the grasses. 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 bran, than wheat does. However, it lacks the protein gluten, and therefore makes baked goods with poor raising capability.

Related Topics:
Grasses - Pea - Cm - Inch - Flour - Bran - Gluten

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