34 Facts About Maize

Maize has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat or rice.

Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain.

Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 384 million metric tons grown in the United States alone in 2021.

Maize is a cultigen; human intervention is required for it to propagate.

Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates.

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Maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage as a common name because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn, which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region.

Maize retained the name corn in the West as the primary grain in these trade relationships.

Maize pollen is anemophilous, and because of its large settling velocity, most pollen falls within a few meters of the tassel.

Maize is an annual grass in the family Gramineae, which includes such plants as wheat, rye, barley, rice, sorghum, and sugarcane.

Maize is still an important model organism for genetics and developmental biology today.

Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center, funded by the USDA Agricultural Research Service and located in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a stock center of maize mutants.

Maize was the staple food, or a major staple – along with squash, Andean region potato, quinoa, beans, and amaranth – of most pre-Columbian North American, Mesoamerican, South American, and Caribbean cultures.

Maize is most sensitive to drought at the time of silk emergence, when the flowers are ready for pollination.

Maize used for silage is harvested while the plant is green and the fruit immature.

Maize was planted by the Native Americans in hills, in a complex system known to some as the Three Sisters.

Maize provided support for beans, and the beans provided nitrogen derived from nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria which live on the roots of beans and other legumes; and squashes provided ground cover to stop weeds and inhibit evaporation by providing shade over the soil.

Maize harvested as a grain crop can be kept in the field a relatively long time, even months, after the crop is ready to harvest; it is harvested and stored in the husk leaves if kept dry.

Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain.

Maize is especially popular in Midwestern states such as Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois; in the latter, it was named the state's official grain in 2017.

Maize is used to produce cornstarch, a common ingredient in home cooking and many industrialized food products.

Maize can be harvested and consumed in the unripe state, when the kernels are fully grown but still soft.

Maize meal is a significant ingredient of some commercial animal food products.

Maize has suboptimal amounts of the essential amino acids tryptophan and lysine, which accounts for its lower status as a protein source.

Maize is a major source of both grain feed and fodder for livestock.

Maize silage is one of the most valuable forages for ruminants.

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Maize is relatively cheap and home-heating furnaces have been developed which use maize kernels as a fuel.

Maize is increasingly used as a feedstock for the production of ethanol fuel.

Maize is widely used in Germany as a feedstock for biogas plants.

Maize is bought and sold by investors and price speculators as a tradable commodity using corn futures contracts.

Maize was introduced into the diet of non-indigenous Americans without the necessary cultural knowledge acquired over thousands of years in the Americas.

Maize contains lipid transfer protein, an indigestible protein that survives cooking.

Maize has been an essential crop in the Andes since the pre-Columbian era.

Maize itself is sometimes used for temporary architectural detailing when the intent is to celebrate the fall season, local agricultural productivity and culture.

Maize stalk with two ripe ears is depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 1 lipa coin, minted since 1993.