Accession Data

Zea mexicana

Common Name: Teosinte

Family: Poaceae

Synonym(s): Euchlaena mexicana Schrad.

Country of Origin: Mexico (Chihuahua to N. Oaxaca)

Description: Annual or perennial, stems to 10 or rarely 15 feet, coarse, branching at base, flattened on one side between the dark-colored fruiting nodes; leaf blades sword-shaped, long-pointed, to 3.25 inches wide, midrib prominent, sheaths expanded, very strongly veined; female spikelets solitary on opposite sides of obliquely articulate rachis, first glume hard, covering the cavity, second glume membranous, lemma hyaline; grains about /25 inches long, glossy, with markings resembling and insect pupa on the face.

Closely related to and resembling Z. Mays, with which it readily hybridizes. Thought to be one of the progenitors of modern corn.

Accession Data

Accession #: 198501220

Accession Date: 1985-12-31 00:00:00

Bloom Status: 🪴 Not Flowering

Location: 2210

Quantity: 3

Source: Unknown

Culture: Short day plant - needs about 60 days to flower.

Classification

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Liliopsida

Subclass: commelinids

Order: Poales

Family: Poaceae

SubFamily: Panicoideae

Tribe: Sacchareae

SubTribe: Tripsacinae

Flowering Data:

This accession has been observed in bloom on:
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

References

  1. The Plant List (2013). Version 1.1. Accessed 24 February 2015.
  2. WCSP (2015). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Accessed 24 February 2015.
  3. Zea (genus) at Wikispecies. Accessed 29 July 2015.
  4. Image #00 (cropped) & #01 (original) by John Doebley (http://teosinte.wisc.edu/images.html) [Attribution or CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons. Last accessed on Tuesday, October 31, 2017.

Images

Zea mexicana
Zea mexicana