أنواع الذُّرة - ١ - كتاب في سبيل موسوعة علمية .. الدكتور أحمد ذكي

Types of corn - 1 -

There are many types of corn. They differ in stem length. Some have a stem length of up to two feet, and some have a stem length of up to 20 feet.

Some of them mature in 60 or 70 days, and some of them do not mature until they are fully matured in 11 months.

The number of leaves on the stem varies. The number of rows of kernels on one ear of corn varies. It may be 4 or it may be 36 rows. The length of the cob is small, even to be the length of the thumb of the hand, and it may be very large, even to reach two feet in length.

The color also varies, in the stem, leaf, and bush, from green to red to brown. The love itself may be yellow, white, or have some redness in it.
Two decades ago, scientists counted the strains of corn and found that there are between 100 and 150 different strains in the world.

The process of hybridization entered corn, intentionally and unintentionally, and was the reason for the multiplication of strains, its improvement, and the increase in its yield, especially when scientific hybridization entered it, which selects from the species that it combines by hybridization those that are most likely to achieve its purpose.

Corn has become divided into about five types, which are now well-known in trade. They are varieties that are cultivated and produce true counterparts. We describe each of them below:

- Dent Maize

Its grain is characterized by a notch in its head, which arises from the fact that the soft and solid starch in the grain has not dried all at once. The stem of this variety is long, ranging from 158 feet, and it only supports one ear. But it is a large cob, reaching 10 inches in length, weighing about three-quarters of a pound, and containing vertical rows of kernels that may reach 48 rows.

It is from this variety that most of the corn traded in the United States comes out, in the belt known as the Corn Belt.

(This is how corn is hybridized: Corn A is crossed with B, producing the first hybrid, No. 1. Then corn C is crossed with corn D, producing the first hybrid, No. 2. Then hybrids No. 1 and No. 2 are crossed together, producing the second-class hybrid. All of this is done by pollination through flowers.)