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Zea or Zea Mays?

The sidebar contains several Zea genus, but the main article is highly focused on Zea Mays, especially Zea Mays subsp. mays. Think we need a seperate page for Zea? Mackerm 17:21, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Should this article provide information about corn is grown now rather than relying on an article that is over 100 years old?

in what country?

"The corn will ripen in October or early November;" in what country? should this be replaced with seasons instead? - --Cyprus2k1 22:26, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

unrelated sentence??

I removed this sentence because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the article:

In 1940, Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovery of transposons while studying maize.

ike9898 15:31, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)

It is an article about maize and someone got a Nobel Prize for studying maize. I don't see how it is unrelated. Rmhermen 22:20, Sep 10, 2004 (UTC)

In Ontario corn is used exclusivley, outside of an academic environment, see the Ontario Corn Producers' Association. I do not feel that the BBC can be used as a proper source in this regards since this crop is not a staple in the UK. Rather, in areas where it is a staple it is called corn. I grew up on a cash crop farm. Farmers do not use the term maize. People do not go into the grocery store to buy maize. Road side stands do not sell maize.

In an antropological context, however, maize is used exclusivley. In this discipline the crop in discussion is usually not the modern variant and, because the development of maize is of great importance in central and North American archaeology, the distinction is necessary. So, academics use the term maize while the common vernacular is corn.

Maize?

I've never heard anyone call this maize? It sounds made up. - Jerryseinfeld 22:30, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Are you trolling? The second para gives a fairly good explanation of the different names used globally for this crop. The common name in America is corn, but maize is the Spanish name used in much of the rest of the world. External validation can be found at the BBC, any number of dictionaries or some 3 million other web references on Google. -- Solipsist 23:14, 25 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Propagation

Maize cannot self seed, right? It depends upon cultivation for seed dispersal. This should probably be mentioned. Perhaps along with domestication history of maize in the first paragraph.

Baby Corn

Can somebody add some information (or write a new article) about baby corn please? I love that weird little freak of nature and would love to know more about it and its relation to regular corn.

Tallest corn

the internet is an excellent source for fake information from lazy humans. the tallest stalk of maize that was ever grown was probably the "31'-even" stalk that was grown outside washington, iowa in 1946. the day that it was measured, the washington newspaper reported this precise height. look it up for yourself. end the circle of august ignorance.

According to this site "Don Radda of Washington grew the world's tallest corn stalk in 1946; it was thirty-one feet and three inches high." -- WormRunner | Talk 21:54, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

As interesting as this factoid is, does it really belong in an encyclopedia article?--nixie 22:01, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I put that in talk because the latest edit of the article was to remove a reference to 30 foot tall corn because User:Rmhermen could not find any source for it. I could have just reverted the article, but felt that putting it in talk first was more politic. -- WormRunner | Talk 22:54, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Terminology

I'm not sure I agree with all of the recent changes you made to the article. I thought the terminology section was informative and important but you removed it. Liblamb 23:15, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I removed that section mostly in the spirit of "Misplaced Pages is not a dictionary", so that the article maize should be about the thing maize, rather than the word "maize". Furthermore, most of that text wasn't even about the word "maize", but about the word "corn", and redundant with text from the article corn (which unfortunately is also mostly about the word, but with perhaps more justification, because it is trying to be a disambiguation page).

Clarification of terminology is crucial when it is an aid to navigation or understanding, but the paragraph in question was not that. Language is a thing in the world, and can be encyclopedic, but that's why there are articles like American and British English differences.

— Pekinensis 00:39, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I disagree also and returned it. It is important to explain what we are talking about before we go into details. Rmhermen 02:23, Apr 20, 2005 (UTC)

Why is it necessary to say that "corn" means "oats" in Scotland in order to talk about maize? — Pekinensis

I am beginning to see Pekinensis' point and have changed the article to acknowledge the variation in terms. Yet, I tried not to duplicate what the corn article says. Liblamb 23:09, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Informally known as corn

When reverting my insertion of the word "informally" into the first sentence, Bkonrad wrote:

I dunno about Canada or Australia but it is almost exlusively known as corn in the U.S., which merits more than an "informally known as")

I won't put it back, but I believe that in technical usage in the US, the plant is generally called maize. For example, a google search for "maize genome" turns up around 20,000 hits, most of which seem to be from US research institutions such as the Maize Genetics/Genomics Database hosted by the University of Missouri, compared to around 3,500 for "corn genome", many of which seem to be from the popular press. Google also believes that the word "maize" appears 55,000 times on US government web pages, so I disagree with the phrase "almost exclusively". I can believe that it is almost exclusively known as corn at the market and at the dinner table, but that is why I used the word "informally". Perhaps a better wording would have been "in non-technical usage", but that puts even more undue emphasis on the question. If it were my article, it would read "Maize, often called corn,", and leave the regional usage trivia out altogether.

— Pekinensis 02:34, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

In common usage in the U.S., I suspect that most people would not readily recognize the term "maize". And among those who did know, many would see it as somewhat exotic or even pretentious. I've no problem with the current "often called" phrasing, but if it is accurate, I think the description of regional variations is worth including, though perhaps it doesn't need to figure so prominently as the second paragraph. older≠wiser 02:14, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)

Contradiction

The "Maize" article states that "Worldwide production was over 600 million metric tons in 2003, just slightly more than rice or wheat."

The "Sweet Corn" article states that "Maize is the third most grown cereal crop in the world after rice and wheat."

I'm not sure which is correct, (or if 2003 is the most recent year for which data is available) but the articles should agree on which crop is grown in greater abundance. 16:52, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Sweet corn is wrong. The most recent numbers are from 2004, million metric tons: Maize 721, wheat 627, rice 605 Rmhermen 18:04, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Indian corn

The species as a whole is called "corn", plain and simple, IMHO as a native speaker of North American English from the midwestern corn belt (though not a farmer). "Indian corn" is used colloqially and loosely to refer to multicolored varieties only. If others have/know of other linguistic traditions for the use of the term Indian corn, it may warrant a short paragraph in the article. However, good, concise, to-the-point introductory paragraphs should not be loaded down with tortuous sentences trying to nuance things too much. -- Kbh3rd 17:22, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Limited scope

User:Ezeu has complained that this article is to focused on the U.S.

I don't beleive that the article is as biased as he claims but the uses of corn section could be expanded to include other countries. Are there places where corn is the dominant food grain? Are there unmentioned significant culinary tradition? Are there unmentioned places where corn plays a significant cultural/ritual/traditional role? Rmhermen 16:13, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

• Yes. See Corn_meal. --Ezeu 17:10, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Edit by 68.47.125.142

Ó:nenhste Mohawk for corn — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.47.125.142 (talk • contribs) 06:35, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

domestication and alkali treatment

Wasn't alkali treatment important in the domestication of Maize ? Why was it necessary, and is it still useful today beyond making Homney ?

Confusing

I've visited this article several times, and it is still rather disappointing. There are large areas of North American POV, with little concession to Latin American or world perspectives. Why does the section on 'Uses for maize' start with modern uses of 'corn' in the United States rather than its use as a traditional staple food source in Latin America. Why is it spending so much time mixing up terms by discussing 'corn' rather than 'maize'. Why is there no discussion or even redirect for blue corn, which AFIK is a fairy common term in New Mexico and other latin influenced states of the US. We should be able to do better and be more internally consistent and encyclopedic. -- Solipsist 21:46, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Oh and there is no explanation of what an 'ear' is, nor any link to Ear (botany). Simiarly, no explanation of what a cob is, although the disambig for cob links here. -- Solipsist 21:58, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Ear (botany) is a poor sub-stub that has existed for 6 days so it is hardly surprising that there is no link. The "Origin" section has a paragraph on the spread of corn in the Americas. I do not see large sections of North American POV. I do see a concentration on the majority production and uses. I have to agree that the "Uses" section is poorly organized but feel I have to point out that while corn/maize is a staple in much of Africa and we can describe that better here, worldwide, human consumption is the minority use of this grain. Blue corn is not common anywhere. It is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands of specialty varieties. Corn is called maize in larger portions of the English speaking world, so we are not "mixing up terms". We are using the correct term in both cases. Rmhermen 00:12, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

wikification of corn

It seems that everything covered in the dab for corn is covered in this article. Youngamerican 20:53, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

No mention of wheat here. The corn page also used to have more content. I may have to restore some. Rmhermen 21:19, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I would agree with wikification if corn was expanded a bit.Youngamerican 21:21, 26 January 2006 (UTC)