What is closer to the truth?
A seed is a living thing or a seed contains the ingredients for a living thing.
There is no dispute whatsoever–a seed is a living thing. It is a multicellular plant.
The reason I ask is because most everything living I can think of dies before 140 degrees F. Yet I can boil corn and what I don’t eat still has the ability to grow.
Depends on your definition of “living”. For a dormant seed, it seems to me no process of change we associate with life is happening… but presumably the same applies to a plant like my lawn that is frozen solid for the winter. But… it’s not dead and it can spring to life… if you consider life to be the organic processes which feed the organism.
What is life? Is a virus “alive”?
Species that can specifically withstand extreme heat are called Thermophiles.
Most thermophiles live at temperatures between 60 and 80° C (140 to 176° F). Thermophiles are capable of growing, carrying out metabolic processes, and reproducing at these extreme temperatures. One thermophile, Pyrolobus fumarii, has been found at temperatures of 113° C /235° F, which is hotter than the boiling point of water!
Thermophiles of Hot Springs National Park - Hot Springs National Park (U.S. National Park Service)
“A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.”
— Samuel Butler
Can you really plant corn that has been heated that high? That’s surprising.
Have you not seen the fields of corn growing in landfills across the country?
Nope, me neither.
I just googled " will boiled corn still sprout" and it said no. I am starting to wonder now if the corn I observed had not been cooked? I was basing this on some corn left over from an out door meal that was left outside and dried out naturally. I am having boiled corn for lunch today so I will conduct the experiment.
There are numerous sites on the interwebs that show you how to germinate and sprout an ear of corn purchased at the grocery store…uncooked however.
The most remarkable example of a thermophile (more accurately, an extremophile) is the tardigrade, which seems to be able to survive almost anything:
Tardigrades are thought to be able to survive even complete global mass extinction events caused by astrophysical events, such as gamma-ray bursts, or large meteorite impacts. Some of them can withstand extremely cold temperatures down to 0.01 K (−460 °F; −273 °C) (close to absolute zero), while others can withstand extremely hot temperatures up to 420 K (300 °F; 150 °C) for several minutes, pressures about six times greater than those found in the deepest ocean trenches, ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for a human, and the vacuum of outer space.
Tardigrade - Wikipedia
I don’t think boiled corn would ever dry out to resemble an uncooked dry kernal.
Another possibility is that the critical part of the seed never reached a critical temperature. The Cob would make a great insulator.
It actually does, I have observed this many times.
All kinds of critters can drop uncooked corn kernels outside, or even entire ears. Humans are only one example, but presumably there were humans at the meal in question.
A seed that isn’t alive can’t sprout. A seed that’s been boiled won’t be alive after boiling (extreme thermophiles excepted.)
I’m surprised. I wouldn’t have thought such ears would be ripe enough to sprout. Sweet corn to be eaten as a fresh vegetable not only needs to be a suitable variety, it needs to be harvested before it matures; otherwise it would be too tough to eat that way.
– hmmm. Do the instructions tell you to damage the kernels?
It is generally accepted that germination of kernels typically does not occur prior to physiological maturity (aka black layer). The reasons for this are related to hormonal balances within the kernels; apparently the balance between gibberellin and abscisic acid in particular. In fact, this balance seems to determine whether seed development and maturation continues or seed germination is enabled (White et al., 2000).
The concept of a balance among hormones playing a vital role in determining whether seed will continue developing or whether it germinates may also help explain why vivipary often occurs in immature kernels on ears physically damaged by hail, birds, or ear molds. The speculation is that the physical damage to immature kernels may disrupt the normal balance among the regulatory hormones and allows for the germination of the damaged kernels. Some ear molds also produce gibberellic acid that can directly disrupt the balance of hormones and stimulate germination.
In other words, that the corn wasn’t actually boiled.
The kernels are on the exterior of the cob. How is it insulating them? Or do you boil your corn with the husk still on?
The germ (the living part of the seed) is right at the bottom/middle of the corn kernel - the part of the seed that is embedded in the cob.
It’s concievable that the starches in the endosperm might have insulated the germ, but if we’re talking about boiled sweetcorn, that’s unripe seeds anyway, so I would tend to suspect that whatever grew in the place where the uneaten corn was dropped, was from somewhere else - some popcorn kernels or a different plant altogether.
I was recently munching on a tamarind pulp packet which included a few of their shiny seeds and I got curious about germinating them. Interestingly, the seeds are sometimes boiled (and mechanically scored) to promote earlier sprouting.
Seeds can be scarified or briefly boiled to enhance germination.
This is exactly what I am starting to think. It was 50 years ago and I didn’t give it much thought at the time, but it did stick with me.
Does it ordinarily grow in areas that frequently burn?
Some seeds are designed to survive fire and may require brief heat by some technique to germinate – the plant has developed to sprout only after fire, as that clears the area temporarily of competition for the new seedlings. Too much heat, however, will still kill them. And corn isn’t one of those species.
To clarify, are you remembering corn sprouting outdoors on its own, in an area in which you’d previously boiled corn?
If so, then some creature dropped un-boiled corn there; and probably mature seed. Again, all sorts of critters, both birds and mammals, do this – take corn from a farm field or garden to eat and drop some of it elsewhere. Humans are only one of many possibilities.