Abelmoschus esculentus (L - the University of Maine at Fort Kent

Kermath, Bennett and Pulsipher - Food Plants in the Americs
palomitas (when popped), pe, pelo de choclo (corn hair), sara,
trigo de las Indias, xëqui, zara
USES/NOTES: Seeds are the corn, or maize, of international
commerce, and are eaten cooked, ground into meal or flour, or
popped. Tiny, tender immature ears (cob and all) are eaten in
salads. An alcoholic beverage (chicha in Portuguese and Spanish)
is fermented from the plant’s juices. Seeds are a source of
edible and industrial oils and sweet syrup (corn syrup) of major
commercial importance. Sweet fine fibers that encase the cob,
known as corn silk or corn hair, are added to foods for flavor
and as a thickening agent. People of Todos Santos Cuchumatán,
Guatemala drink the liquid that they boil the corn in. Cobs and
seeds of some varieties yield a purple dye. Worth more than $50
million in 1986 on the world market, maize is the third most
valuable food crop in the world. In recent years, Z. mays has
become an important source of ethanol. The Tarahumara of Mexico
ferment a sour, yellowish alcoholic beverage known as tesgüino,
which is an important cultural element of these natives of
northwestern Mexico. Immature galls of Ustilago maydis, a dark
fungus known by its Nahuatl name huitlacoche or cuitlacoche in
Mexico and corn smut in English is harvested from maize plants
(typically from the cobs, though also from tassels and nodes) and
is eaten in cooked dishes and soups in Mexico.
NATURAL RANGE: Domesticated in southwestern Mexico well over 7,000
years ago; diffused to Tabasco, Mexico at least 7,300 years ago
and then into Central and South America; cultivated in Peru
between 3,600 and 4,000 years ago
REFERENCES: Antúnez de Mayolo 1989, Argüello 1991, Bird 1984, Boom
1987, Buitimea 2003, Carneiro Martins 1989, Duke 1986, Erwin
1950, Ford 1984, Fussell 1999, Galinat 1992, González 2001, Guia
Rural n.d., Harris 1972, Iltis 1988, Johannessen 1992,
Johannessen and Parker 1988, Johannessen and Parker 1989, Kermath
(notes), Naranjo 1991, OAS 1973, Omawale 1973, Perry et al. 2006,
Pohl et al. 2007, Schwanitz 1966, Soukup 1970, Smith 1994,
Webster et al. 2005, Wellhausen et al. 1952, Zimmerer 1992
Zea mexicana (Schrader) Kuntze [syn. Z. mays L. subsp. mexicana
(Schrader) Iltis, Euchlaena mexicana Schrader]
FAMILY: Gramineae or Poaceae (grass)
ENGLISH: annual teosinte, tembe, teosinte
PORTUGUESE: teosinto
SPANISH: maíz café, milpa de pájaro, teosinte, teozintle
USES/NOTES: Seeds and sweet green stems are edible, and dry seeds
may be eaten popped. Used for forage in Mexico and the
southwestern U.S., this wild annual species may be a progenitor
of common maize (Z. mays) and may be useful in breeding with
common maize.
NATURAL RANGE: Mexico, perhaps southern Chihuahua, where it remains
extant today, to the south-central Mexican plateau
DRAFT - DO NOT DUPLICATE OR DISTRIBUTE
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