Corn

Illustration of Zea mays plant parts

Description

A cereal grain (Zea mays) domesticated in the Americas. Corn is a tall plant that produces rows of edible kernels along an oblong ears growing from a thick stalk. Corn is primarily used as a food product. Extracted products include corn oil, corn syrup, cornstarch, corn flour, and ethanol (whiskey, gasoline). The stalks have been used as biomass for fuel, and as additives for acoustical tiles, while the corncobs have been carved into smoking pipes and dolls.

Cor Zea mays

Synonyms and Related Terms

maize (Br.); Zea mays; Indian corn; cornstalk; corncob; majs (Dan., Sven.); Mais (Deut.); maíz (Esp.); maïs (Fr., Ned.); mais (It.); Kukurydza zwyczajna (Pol.); milho (Port.); kukuřice (Ces.)

Other Properties

Stem height = 2-3 m with nodes about every 50 cm.

Authority

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize (Accessed Jan. 15, 2006)