Amaizing!

[Cotyledon]

This morning as I was picking and examining some of the corn I grew for my corn breeding project, I noticed something I had not seen, read about or heard of before.

This particular cob filled out better than all the others I grew. When I looked closely, I found anthers between the seeds. It self-pollinated in the husk! Not from the tassels!





Its black waxy corn from Thailand. I didn't think it would work in my area because it was equatorial, I am happy to be wrong about that! But also, that is why we evaluate plants and see how they perform.

Imagine if this trait could be selected for and breed true. It can result in self pollinating corn that doesn't need wind to pollinate it.

I attempted to use pollen from the tassels of this plant to pollinate other corn, hopefully I was able to get some tunicata crossed with this for my corn project. I had other pretty cobs and interesting results from my evaluations this year, but this is the only thing worth sharing at this point.

Good times!

[Cotyledon]

I found a decent image that describes and depicts abnormal ears of corn.
https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/u.osu.edu/dist/d/4866/files/2014/08/Abnormal_ear_poster_2015_April28-168l0pl.jpg

Interestingly this does not include the mutation I depict above, so it may be rare, but I also suspect that sources of information the USA are not going to be well versed when it comes to waxy corn, which is not nearly as well studied nor as widely grown as other types of corn are here.

[AndrewB]

Some of my Indian corn grows anthers at the very top of an ear of corn. It might be more common in red foliage Indian corn than others, possibly because they are less modern bred and still retain  older genetics.

Teosinte grows like this.

[Cotyledon]

I believe that abnormality is known as a tassel ear and is commonly found on tillers of certain varieties like red strawberry popcorn.