Zea mays |
Zea mays subsp. huehuetenangensis |
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corn, cultivated corn |
Huehuetenango teosinte |
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Habit | Plants annual. | |||||||||||||
Culms | (0.5)1-3(6) m tall, (0.5)1-5 cm thick. |
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Blades | mostly 30-90 cm long, 2.5-12 cm wide. |
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Caryopses | concealed in fruitcases (wild taxa) or exposed (domesticated taxon); fruitcases of wild taxa distichous, triangular in side view; domesticated taxon without fruitcases, glumes reduced and shallow or collapsed and embedded in the rachis. |
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Pistillate | inflorescences rames or spikes, usually shortly pedunculate (sometimes sessile), solitary, 4-30(40) cm long, (0.5)1-10 cm thick, with 2 or more rows of paired spikelets, hence the spikelets 4 or more ranked, rarely terminating in an unbranched staminate inflorescence. |
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Staminate | panicles 10-25+ cm, with 1-60(235) branches, internodes 1.5-8.2 mm; spikelets 9-14 mm long, 2.5-5 mm wide; lower glumes rounded dorsally, flexible, translucent, papery, loosely enclosing the upper glumes, the 2 lateral veins subequal to the others, not winged. |
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Zea | mays subsp. huehuetenangensis is morphologically similar to subsp. parviglumis (see below), but it often grows more than 5 m tall, and has essentially glabrous leaves, and smaller staminate panicles with fewer (less than 40), firmer branches, and different ecological, phenological, and molecular characteristics. |
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2n | = 20. |
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Zea mays |
Zea mays subsp. huehuetenangensis |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; PR; ON; QC; Virgin Islands
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Discussion | Of the five subspecies of Zea mays, only the domesticated subspecies, Z. mays subsp. mays, is widely grown outside of research programs. Three wild subspecies are treated here, albeit briefly, because of their importance as genetic resources for Z. mays subsp. mays. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
It is endemic to the Province of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, where it grows as a common weed on the edges of, and in, maize fields, and in seasonally moist oak cloud and tropical deciduous forests, at elevations from 900-1650 m. In its native range, it commonly hybridizes with Z. mays subsp. mays, both subspecies flowering from mid-December to mid-January, at the end of the wet season. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 701. | FNA vol. 25, p. 701. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Zea | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Zea > Zea mays | ||||||||||||
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Name authority | L. | (H.H. litis & Doebley) Doebley | ||||||||||||
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