The Story of Sweet Corn

Wiki working name Zea mays var. saccharata is not Kew’s accepted taxon. Kew treats it as a synonym of cultivated Zea mays subsp. mays.

How it was found

Kew maps Zea mays from Central and southwestern Mexico to western Guatemala. Native list: Guatemala, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest. Introduced very widely, including California and much of the U.S. USDA GRIN native table: Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco, México, Michoacán de Ocampo) and Guatemala; also cultivated. Kew’s accepted cultivated subspecies Zea mays subsp. mays is printed as a cultigen from Mexico (N. Guerrero), Native to: Mexico Southwest — the cultivated maize/sweet-corn lineage, not a second species. Those two Kew sentences are not collapsed into one origin line.

Kew does not print a first-cultivation year on the Z. mays L. taxon page. UC Small Farms Network (1992): the oldest known remains of corn cobs may be in Tehuacan, Mexico, dating back 7,000 years; most corn historians consider a wild grass called teosinte one of modern corn’s primary ancestors. UC Marin: corn descended from a Mexican grass called teosinte — no year. A Riverside MG “9,000 years” line that cites Wikipedia is not used.

How people used it

Kew: used for food (also animal food, invertebrate food, fuel, environmental and social uses). UC Small Farms: maize was the foundation of most great Western Hemisphere civilizations (Incas, Mayans, Aztecs); sweet corn is one of six common kernel types of the same crop (flint, flour, dent, pop, waxy, and sweet). UC Marin MG: technically a grain, considered a fruit, commonly categorized as a vegetable; sweet-corn ears harvested for eating.

Kew lists medicine with no specific remedy named. GRIN folklore is not copied. GRIN’s secondary “Materials — fiber” row is not copied as a historical-use claim.

Timeline

1. 7,000 years (as printed)

   Tehuacan cobs, teosinte

   UC Small Farms Network: the oldest known remains of corn cobs may be in Tehuacan, Mexico, dating back 7,000 years; teosinte is treated as one of modern corn’s primary ancestors. Kew’s species map is Central and southwestern Mexico to western Guatemala. The 9,000-year Wikipedia-cited line is not used.

   UC Small Farms Network — Specialty Corn (1992)

2. Five hundred years ago / Columbus

   Europeans meet maize

   UC Small Farms Network: five hundred years ago Columbus was one of the first Europeans to set eyes on maize. A contact date, not a Mexican origin date.

   UC Small Farms Network — Specialty Corn (1992)

3. 1540

   Coronado sees irrigated corn

   UC Small Farms Network: Coronado noted maize or corn growing under irrigation among Native Americans of the southwestern part of what is now the United States.

   UC Small Farms Network — Specialty Corn (1992)

4. 1620

   Pilgrim winter

   UC Small Farms Network: corn largely kept the Pilgrims alive during the harsh winter of 1620 on the East Coast.

   UC Small Farms Network — Specialty Corn (1992)

5. 1753

   Named in Species Plantarum

   Kew accepts Zea mays L., first published in Sp. Pl.: 971 (1753). USDA GRIN: Sp. pl. 2:971. 1753. Sweet corn stays this species.

   Kew POWO; USDA GRIN

Cool to know

Growing notes for this plant live on the Plant Wiki. This page is origin and use, not a How-To.