Maize

Maize
Illustration depicting both male and female flowers of maize
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Panicoideae
Tribe:	Andropogoneae
Genus:	Zea
Species:	Z. mays
Subspecies:	Z. mays subsp. mays
Trinomial name
Zea mays subsp. mays L.

Maize or corn is a true cereal grain and major staple crop in the US and around the world.

There are two groups of varieties which could be treated as two different edible plants: sweet corn, eaten as a vegetable, and field corn, eaten as a grain and processed into different flours/meals. Sweet corn has a much higher sugar content and is harvested early, while the moisture content is high and the kernels still contain milky juice. Field corn is harvested later, after the sugar has been converted into starch and the kernels have dried out.

Field corn kernels can be processed with alkali, a process called nixtamalization (the name and the process itself both come from the Aztec and Mayan people who first developed it). This results in corn that is easier to digest and more nutritious, and also has a different taste.

Edible products

• Sweet corn
  • On the cob
  • Canned, frozen, etc.
• Popcorn
• Corn flour
• Corn meal
• Hominy
• Corn starch
• Corn oil
• Corn syrup
  • High-fructose corn syrup

Acknowledgements

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Maize, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.