# corn, maize **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 24, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683 "2003-01-24T19:42:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/21 "2013-02-04T20:59:24Z")
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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/22 "2013-02-04T21:06:11Z")
I guess parole just didn’t work out. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/23 "2013-02-06T20:54:16Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > So, what kind of corn do they grow in Brigadoon? Oats, of course. Haven’t you ever read Johnson’s Dictionary? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/24 "2013-02-07T12:35:57Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I guess parole just didn’t work out. Mod note: Look, I agree that this posting only once, in your own thread, after a ten-year hiatus is pretty weird… but that’s no reason for being insulting. This is putting one toe over a fuzzy line, **Czarcasm** , please don’t. Reminder for those who are new here: personal insults directed at other posters are not permitted outside the forum called the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/25 "2013-02-07T14:01:43Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Mod note: Look, I agree that this posting only once, in your own thread, after a ten-year hiatus is pretty weird… but that’s no reason for being insulting. This is putting one toe over a fuzzy line, **Czarcasm** , please don’t. > > Reminder for those who are new here: personal insults directed at other posters are not permitted outside the forum called the Pit. I apologize, and will try to remember to apologize directly to the OP when he returns. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/26 "2013-02-08T03:32:50Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > manyolkars is the Golden Earring of the SDMB. Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there! **Deeg** , that’s the best semi-obscure rock band joke I’ve seen all day! Let me take a crack at one: > [@Floater](#): > > In Swedish, and AFAIK the rest of the Germanic languages, **korn** = **barley**. In America, **Korn** = [Rock](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34lSkoFPZXM) ---
**Author:** ![GRobLewis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5e925/32.png) [@GRobLewis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GRobLewis)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/27 "2013-02-08T20:02:37Z")
Maize’s closest relative is a Mexican weed called teosinte. Since maize can’t reproduce without human assistance, it must have been selectively bred by Native Americans from teosinte. A great many widely-varying cultivars must have been developed along the way. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/28 "2013-02-08T21:59:09Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > Look at this site: [http://www.gmushrooms.com/Posters/IndianCorn.htm](http://www.gmushrooms.com/Posters/IndianCorn.htm) I wish I could read the text in that poster. ---
**Author:** ![juniorhoss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@juniorhoss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/juniorhoss)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/29 "2013-02-10T14:21:04Z")
Let me offer some clarity. I have years of experience growing corn. Not just buying commercial seeds and planting them but doing years, even decades, of hand selected and controlled breeding, cross pollinating, Etc to create and maintain my own varieties First, lets clear up corn and maize. They are the same. Just like saying “dog” and “canine” are pretty much the same. Now, you said the stuff you thought of as maize was a lot different than the “modern” corn that you think of. For comparison if you’d only ever seen two versions of “mans best friend” in your life, a chihuahua someone showed you and said , “this is a canine”, and a Great Dane someone showed you and said “this is a dog”, you’d think "no way these things are the same or even related. What I’m trying to say is that there are literally tens of thousands of different “breeds” of corn (us agronomists call them “varieties”). Each with their own characteristics. Just like there are hundreds of breeds of dogs that are all very different but are all still very much dogs. Or canines. The myriad varieties are classed into five main categories or “types” 1. Dent corn, which is the most common commercial product. So named becaise as it dries, each kernel forms a “dent” in the top of the kernel. Used for livestock feed, cornmeal for chips and cornbread, ethanol (no comment), syrup, etc. typically the majority of these varieties are yellow but lots are also white, with some that are even red, green, blue, etc. like Bloody Butcher corn, one of my favorites to grow for home use cornmeal and chicken feed, deep red/maroon kernels that grows strong and produces well 2. Flint corn, which is the “bean” or “BB” looking kernels. When shelled off the ear, the kernels look almost spherical. Popcorn (of which there are thousands of different varieties), is a type of flint corn. And there are thousands of varieties of popcorn alone. Purdue 410. Japanese white hulless. Hundreds more. 3. Sweet corn. Sweet corn that you enjoy munching off the cob in summertime with butter dripping down your chin, is ABSOLUTELY NOT the same stuff as the corn grown for commercial use. It’s a type that doesn’t convert as much of the sugar from the growing process into starch for storage as it ripens. That, plus it’s picked “underripe” for eating as sweet corn. If you let sweet corn ripen into the fall and dry down, the dry kernels shrivel and look like raisins. Again, there are thousands of varieties of this stuff too. Google “honey and pearl sweet corn” or “bodacious sweet corn” or “country gentleman corn” to find links to seed companies that will each have several or dozens of varieties. 4. Gourdseed corn. It’s like dent corn but with a narrower cob and long, thin kernels. So named because the kernels look like seeds from a pumpkin or gourd. 5. Broom corn. Similar to sorghum, it has the seeds on the top. Like large oat grass or fescue. It’s a bit more primitive than other corn. Related more closely to teosinte, which is another whole story for another time. So the stuff you saw a long time ago was likely flint corn of some kind, sorry, flint maize. Within each of the above types there are also varieties that are open pollinated vs. Hybrid varieties. Open pollinated means a variety of corn is planted in an area, pollinated itself however within itself and its neighbors that are of the same variety, and the offspring will be basically the same. Hybrid means that two dissimilar varieties were planted next to each other and one of them had the tassels (male portion) removed so the other variety would pollinate it. The offspring has different characteristics than either parent. Open pollinated is like letting ten male yellow labs and ten female yellow labs run for a summer in a field together. Any offspring that results will be yellow labs too Hybrid is like putting ten female labs and ten male poodles in a field, and the offspring being labradoodles, which share some characteristics with both parents as well as being a completely new/different variety (breed) unto itself. ---
**Author:** ![juniorhoss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@juniorhoss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/juniorhoss)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/30 "2013-02-10T14:22:53Z")
One final thought, I’ve been made aware of a movie or “documentary” called King Corn. I watched it to see what it was about. In my professional opinion EVERYTHING in that movie is falsified, hyped up misinformation, misrepresentation, and all out lies. Just the $.02 worth. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683/31 "2013-02-11T03:55:02Z")
> [@juniorhoss](#): > > First, lets clear up corn and maize. They are the same. Just like saying “dog” and “canine” are pretty much the same. Only in America. In other countries, “corn” means whatever the main cereal crop is, or even “grain” in general. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-maize/150683.md?page=1)