Teosinte Distribution in Mexico - CIMMYT: Seeding innovation ...

20 Teosinte distribution in Mexico
population was not rediscovered until the early 1980s
(Doebley 1983), despite attempts to find it in the
1960s (Wilkes, personal communication). In addition,
Collins (1921) found teosinte in maize and oat fields
on the outskirts of Chalco, state of Mexico. In the
state of Jalisco he found perennial teosinte in the
same location reported by Hitchcock in 1910, namely
1.6 km south of the Zapotlán train station (today
Ciudad Guzmán).
Bukasov (1926) visited different regions of Mexico to
become acquainted with teosinte areas. He concluded
that little was to be found in northern Mexico and
that, based on the literature, there was more in
Durango, San Luis Potosí, the Valley of Mexico,
Guanajuato, Jalisco, Hidalgo, and Chiapas.
Wellhausen et al. (1951) presented a map of teosinte
distribution in Mexico. Unfortunately no text
accompanies the map, nor are the precise locations of
teosinte indicated.
Wilkes (1967) mentioned that Collins, Kempton and
Stadelman visited the Western Sierra Madre in
Chihuahua in 1937 and located teosinte at Cerro
Prieto and Nabogame, places also mentioned by
Lumholtz (1902). Wilkes traveled throughout Mexico
and found teosinte at most sites where it had
previously been recorded or collected. In addition to
his collections, he prepared a map (Wilkes 1967 1977b
and 1985) of teosinte sites from southeastern
Honduras to northern Mexico. For some of the points,
the place name is not mentioned.
Based on his searches during 1977-1980, Guzmán
(1982) described the distribution of teosinte in the
state of Jalisco. Five locations are identified for Zea
diploperennis, four for Zea perennis, and seven for
annual teosintes.
Wilkes (1986) recorded the rediscovery of teosinte at
two locations in the state of Oaxaca. The first is
Loxicha, also known as San Agustín Loxicha, where
teosinte was first reported among herbarium
specimens collected by Danish botanist Fredrick
Liebmann in 1842. This population is small (less than
2 km2) and seeds were collected on the outskirts of
Loxicha at 1,200 meters above sea level (masl). The
second population was discovered in 1985 by José M.
López, of the Postgraduate College at Chapingo near
San Pedro Juchatengo at 1,150 masl (Hernández X.
1987).
Unfortunately, specific sites are not mentioned in
most older reports, nor are maps included to allow
the location of teosinte populations. Despite the
efforts of different collectors, no teosinte has been
found recently in the states of Chiapas, Sonora,
Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí, nor the “Barranca Chica”
population near the city of Guadalajara, in the state of
Jalisco.
The most complete maps of teosinte distribution in
Mexico are those published by Kato (1976) and
Sánchez and Ordaz (1987).
Detailed descriptions of teosinte
areas
The information that follows is based largely on the
work of Sánchez and Ordaz (1987), as well as
exploration by Sánchez and Aguilar during
1987-1991, Wilkes and Sánchez (1993), Wilkes and
Taba (1993), and Sánchez and Chuela (1995). Table 1
lists the locations of populations for which seed or
herbarium specimens exist or for which ethnobotanic
information is available. Teosinte distribution areas
in Mexico may be divided as follows (Fig.␣ 1).
Valley of Nabogame, Chihuahua
This is a small (approximately 50 km2) valley at 26°
15’ N, 106° 58’ W, in the Western Sierra Madre,
approximately 16 km northwest of Guadalupe and
Calvo, in southern Chihuahua (Fig. 2) at an average