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• Zea mays

Zea mays — corn

Facts

Zea mays ssp. mays is a cultivated, annual grass that originated in Mexico. It is now widely planted around the world for its grain. Corn is often called maize, a Spanish corruption of one indigenous word for this plant.

Habitat

Anthropogenic (man-made or disturbed habitats), meadows and fields

Characteristics

• Flowers

  Anther number

  0–3

  Awn on glume

  the glume has no awn

  Glume relative length

  one or both glumes are as long or longer than all of the florets

  Glume shape

  the glume is flat or curved in cross-section

  Glume veins

  0

  Inflorescence axis orientation

  the inflorescence axis is straight

  Inflorescence branches

  • the flowers are attached to branches rather than to the main axis of the inflorescence
  • there are no branch points between the base of the inflorescence axis and the flowers, or they are not obvious

  Inflorescence type (general)

  • the inflorescence is a spike, or is spike-like, lacking obvious branches
  • the spikelets are borne on stalks or on branches

  Inflorescence type (specific)

  • the inflorescence is a spike (a long unbranched stem with flowers along it that lack stalks)
  • the inflorescence is branched, and the branches do NOT both grow from the same side of the plant AND look like spikes

  Inforescence position

  • the spikelets are mainly carried at the end of the stem
  • the spikelets are mainly found at the nodes, in the axils of leaves, along the stem

  Lemma awn base

  NA

  Lemma awn length

  0 mm

  Lemma awn number

  the lemma has no awn

  Lemma cross-section

  the lemma is flat or rounded if you cut across the midpoint

  Lemma surface

  the surface of the lemma is relatively smooth (not counting any longitudinal veins or hairs)

  Lemma tip

  the lemma tip is a simple point, with or without an awn (long narrow extension ending in a point)

  Lemma vein number

  3

  One or more florets

  there is one floret per spikelet

  Reproductive system

  the plant has some flowers with carpels, and other flowers with stamens, but no flowers with both (monoecious)

  Spikelet axis tip

  there is no extension of the spikelet axis beyond the tip of the spikelet

  Spikelet length

  9–14 mm

  Spikelets spiny

  the spikelets do not appear spiny

• Growth form

  Lifespan

  the plant lives only a single year or less

• Leaves

  Leaf auricles

  the leaves do not have auricles

  Leaf blade width

  25–120 mm

  Leaf ligule type

  the leaf ligule is in the form of a membrane with fine hairs

  Leaf sheath closed around stem

  the margins of the leaf sheath are overlapping and not fused together except in the basal half (or less)

• Place

  Habitat

  terrestrial

  New England state

  • Connecticut
  • Maine
  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire
  • Vermont

  Specific habitat

  • man-made or disturbed habitats
  • meadows or fields

• Stem, shoot, branch

  Stem spacing

  the stems grow singly or a few together (they may form diffuse colonies)

Wetland status

Not classified

New England distribution and conservation status

From the dichotomous key of Flora Novae Angliae