Descripción del producto

The corn plant is a warm weather annual, deep-rooted but requiring abundant moisture for best development. From a seed a single stalk arises that will reach from 2 to near *0 feet depending on kind and growing conditions. This stalk ten-ninates in the tassel or staminate flowers. At the stem nodes are attached the large, smooth leaves which may be more than 2 feet long and 2 inches wide along the mid-point of the stem. At the base of the main stem side shoots or suckers commonly rise, which may produce seeds. The female flowers are borne on a receptacle, termed ear, which arises at a leaf axfl near the mid-point along the stem. Normally one to three or more such ears develop. The flower organs, and later the grain kemels, are enclosed in several layers of papery tissue, termed husks. Strands of "silk", actually the stigmas from the flowers, emerge from the terminals of the ears and husks at the same time the pollen from the terminal tassels is shed. The pollen is wind blown and comes in contact with the emerged silk or stigma. The pollen then germinates and a pollen tube grows down through the silk to the ega cell of the female flower. The male gamete fuses with the egg, and from the fertilized egg the corn seed or kernel develops.