Is Corn a Type of Grass?

eHow may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.
Corn is a member of the grass family.

Occasionally a food isn't what you think it is botanically, such as watermelons being vegetables despite their treatment as a fruit. Corn is in the produce and frozen vegetable sections, not to mention among the canned vegetables as well. Yet corn is actually a member of a grass family.

Advertisement

Identification

Video of the Day

Corn, Zea mays, is a member of the grass family Poaceae, formerly known as Gramineae. Instead of being relatively short like wheat, corn grows into a tall stalk, up to 20 feet. Sweet corn, the variety that you eat fresh, is the result of a mutation that occurred in the 1800s.

Video of the Day

History

The theoretical ancestor of corn is teosinte, a Mexican grass that also may have given rise to other edible grasses such as Job's tears. Palomar College says the grass was selectively bred for "many thousands of years" in order to transform the individually encased grains into the modern ear of corn.

Advertisement

Relatives

Poaceae includes grains as diverse as wheat, sorghum, oats, rye and rice. All form stalks of varying heights, and Texas A&M University says each contains something called an intercalary meristem, which is what allows the grass to continue growing even after it's been cut down through grazing or mowing.

Advertisement

references