HORTICULTURE

Detailed explanation-1: -By selectively breeding each generation, ancient farmers drastically changed teosinte’s appearance, yield, grain quality and survivability-culminating in today’s “corn.” In fact, teosinte is so unlike modern corn, 19th century botanists did not even consider the two to be related.

Detailed explanation-2: -Humans slowly created corn from teosinte. Thousands of years ago, people began to grow food instead of hunting and gathering. They selected seeds from their best plants at harvest time to plant the next year. Large kernels without hard shells were easier to eat, so every year farmers saved the largest, softest seeds.

Detailed explanation-3: -The farmers saved kernels from plants with desirable characteristics and planted them for the next season’s harvest. This process is known as selective breeding or artificial selection. Maize cobs became larger over time, with more rows of kernels, eventually taking on the form of modern maize.

Detailed explanation-4: -And the most noticeable difference, of course, is that while we think of corn as having these large ears alongside the main stem, teosinte doesn’t have that. Teosinte will have, instead of one or two ears, will have hundreds of ears along the plant, along the branches of the plant. And the ears are very, very tiny.

Detailed explanation-5: -The hard outer casing of teosinte makes the dry grain inedible. It was a genetic mutation that caused this hard outer coating to disappear. Ancient plant breeders took advantage of this trait by saving and planting these kernels, essentially making corn what it is today.