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Dinesh / Photos

Corn

Corn, also known as maize (Zea mays), is thought to have originated from the wild grass teosinte in the lowlands of southwest Mexico around 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. Humans began selectively breeding teosinte, which is native to southern Mexico, and the earliest archaeological evidence of corn has been found in the Tehuacan Valley, Mexico, and is estimated to be around 8,700 years old.

It is a human invention, a plant that does not exist naturally in the wild. It can only survive if planted and protected by humans. Scientists believe people living in central Mexico developed corn at least 7000 years ago. It was started from a wild grass called teosinte.
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Dinesh said:

The original corn cob, or maize, was much smaller than modern corn cobs, measuring about 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) long and producing only eight rows of kernels. This is about half the number of kernels produced by modern corn. The oldest maize specimen directly dated using carbon-14 dating is from the Guilá Naquitz cave in Oaxaca, Mexico, and is about 6,250 years old. These fossils look similar to modern corn but are much smaller, with few rows and kernels.
2 months ago
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