Corn Facts

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Corn Facts

• Created by
• Karen Bazan
• 2nd grade teacher

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Corn clips and pics
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Types of Corn

• Scientists think that the ancestry of corn in the
  Americas dates back to 10,000 years ago, and that
  it is closely related to a wild grass called
  teosinte. Corn was introduced to Spain by
  Columbus. The Spanish called it Panizo, which
  means grain in Spanish.
• What kinds of corn are there?
• Flint cornFlint corn is very hard and gets its
  name from flint, a hard type of stone. The colors
  of flint corn range from white to red. (Flint
  corn is also known as Indian corn.) Flint corn is
  commonly used for industrial purposes and
  livestock feed. Today, flint corn is widely grown
  in Asia, Europe, and Central and South America.
• Popcorn Popcorn is a special type of flint corn
  with hard, small kernels. The natural moisture
  inside the kernels turns to steam when heated,
  but the outer coat of the kernel is so hard that
  the moisture is trapped. This causes the steam to
  build up pressure until the kernel explodes. The
  wild ancestor of corn is believed to have been a
  type of popcorn. Today, the United States is
  responsible for producing almost all of the
  world's popcorn.
• Dent cornDent corn is softer than flint corn. It
  has a dent in each kernel. Most kernels are
  yellow or white. It is commonly grown in North
  America and often used as livestock feed. It is
  also used to make many processed foods.
• Flour cornFlour corn has a very soft starchy
  kernel. It is easily ground and is used in baked
  goods. Flour and Flint corn were the chief types
  of corn raised by Native Americans. Today, it is
  used mostly for food by the people who grow it.
  It is one of the oldest kinds of corn.
• Sweet cornSweet corn has more natural sugar than
  other types of corn. Today, it is eaten on the
  cob or it is stored frozen or canned. Most Native
  American tribes didn't grow sweet corn because
  they didn't like the sweet taste.
• Pod cornPod corn is thought to have been the
  first type of corn grown. Each kernel grows in
  its own husk, so it is difficult to use without
  incorporating a lot of labor. It is raised today
  for scientific research.

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Did you know?

• Corn provides nearly 20 of the world's food
  calories.
• Corn is grown in Africa more widely than any
  other crop.
• The United States grows 45 of the world's corn,
  much of which is processed into animal feed.
• A bushel of corn yields 2.5 gallons of ethanol a
  renewable fuel used instead of lead to raise
  gasoline octane levels.
• More than 2000 supermarket products are sweetened
  with corn syrup, more than are sweetened with
  refined sugars.
• Corn farming was probably introduced to Africa to
  supply cheap food for slave ships. Ironically,
  while Africa was losing people to slavery, the
  addition of corn to the African diet helped to
  fuel a population increase. Corn, which was easy
  to cultivate and grew rapidly, became a staple
  crop in many parts of Africa. Today, in east
  Africa, for example, corn is eaten at nearly
  every meal.
• An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.
• Corn is produced in every continent of the world
  except Antarctica.

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Why is Corn Important?

• As a crop, corn dominates American agriculture,
  with production more than double that of any
  other. Corn is planted on roughly 70-80 million
  US acres annually, with an annual production of
  about 9 billion bushels and a value of 30 billion
  dollars (production and value vary from year to
  year). The humble kernel of corn finds its way
  into your life as edible and inedible products,
  including rubber, plastics, fuel, clothing, food
  additives and adjuncts, and literally thousands
  of other forms. Corn is also our chief crop
  export, with total bushels exported in excess of
  total bushels used domestically for food, seed,
  and industrial purposes. Over half of the crop,
  however, ends up as feed for domestic livestock.
• Corn production is measured in bushels, a term
  that equates to a quantity equal to 56 pounds of
  shelled grain (removed from the cob). A single
  bushel of corn contains roughly 73,000 kernels,
  each of which can produce a plant bearing one or
  more ears, each of which in turn can produce
  roughly 800 new kernels. Each year, United States
  farms harvest many hundreds of trillions of
  kernels, to be used as food for humans and
  animals, to produce raw materials for
  manufacturing other goods, and for export.

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More Types of Corn

• DENT corn, the scientific name of which is Zea
  mays indentata, is also called "field" corn. It
  is a corn variety with kernels that contain both
  hard and soft starch and become indented at
  maturity. It is a major crop used to make food,
  animal feed, and industrial products.
• FLINT corn, known by the scientific name Zea mays
  indurata, is a variety of corn having hard,
  horny, rounded or short and flat kernels with the
  soft and starchy endosperm completely enclosed by
  a hard outer layer. It is similar to dent and is
  used for the same purposes. Most of it is grown
  in South America.
• WAXY corn is a corn variety with grains that have
  a waxy appearance when cut, and that contain only
  branched-chain starch. It is grown to make
  special starches for thickening foods.
• SWEET or "green" corn is eaten fresh, canned, or
  frozen. It is a type of corn that is grown in
  many horticultural varities. It is variously
  considered a distinct species (Zea saccharata or
  Zea rugosa), a subspecies (Zea mays rugosa) or a
  specific mutation of dent corn. It is
  distinguished by kernels containing a high
  percentage of sugar in the milk stage when they
  are suitable for table use.
• POPCORN is a variety of corn, Zea mays everta,
  which has small ears and small pointed or rounded
  kernels with very hard corneous endosperm that,
  on exposure to dry heat, are popped or everted by
  the expulsion of the contained moisture, and form
  a white starchy mass many times the size of the
  original kernel.
• INDIAN corn has white, red, purple, brown, or
  multicolored kernels. It was the original corn
  grown by the Indians, and is known by the
  scientific name Zea mays. It is many times seen
  in harvest time and Halloween decorations.
• FLOUR corn, also called "soft" corn or "squaw"
  corn, has kernels shaped like those of flint corn
  and composed almost entirely of soft starch. It
  is known by the scientific name Zea mays
  amylacea. In this country we grow small amounts
  of blue flour corn to make tortillas, chips, and
  baked goods. In South America this corn is grown
  in various colors to make food and beer.
• This information provided by the Ohio Corn
  Marketing Program www.ohiocorn.org

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Pictures of Dent Corn
Flint Corn