Corn, also known as maize , is one of the most successful cereal grasses of all time. It has been under human cultivation for over 10,000 years and has spread itself into eve…ry niche of commercial agriculture. Like most grain producing grasses, corn is an annual that must be replanted each year. While corn originates in the New World, it is grown all over the world and used for a staggering array of products. Corn is far more productive than most cereal crops and able to sustain a higher population than relatives like wheat , rye , or rice..
Corn grows in warm weather and usually matures in late summer. The stalks can grow between three feet (one meter) and 20 feet (six meters) tall, depending upon the cultivar. At one point, there were thousands of varieties of corn in production, but these numbers have since dwindled to less than one hundred hardy, predictable varieties with large fleshy kernels. Corn grows in ears, tight clusters of kernels around a central core or cob that is covered in a leafy husk. Corn has been bred in such a way that it has difficulty reproducing without human assistance, thanks to this husk..
Archaic forms of corn would be unrecognizable to modern consumers. Corn's ancestor was probably a small grass with ears approximately two inches (five centimeters) long. People determined to eke some sort of nutritional value out of the grass bred corn to the plant we are familiar with today, and it quickly diffused all over the United States. Corn would have been popular among early Americans because it was nutritious, easy to cultivate, tasty, and high yielding..
As a commercial crop, corn is everywhere. It is one of the most intensively genetically modified crops, which has led to serious discussion and comment both inside and outside the agricultural industry. Corn is also one of the most grown crops globally, with thousands of acres being dedicated around the world to the high intensity production of corn crops..
Corn is also used in everything imaginable. In addition to being eaten straight off the cob or popped, corn is used to manufacture corn syrup , a wildly successful artificial sweetener. Corn is also used to synthesize a number of compounds used in manufacturing processes, such as corn starch, which is in everything from cardboard to biodegradable containers. Corn is extensively cultivated to produce animal feed, with all feedlot animals consuming pounds of the crop each day. In addition, corn is used in the manufacture of alcohol and ethanol, a commonly used alternative fuel. (MORE)
Corns .
Corns (also called clavi ) are specially-shaped calluses of dead skin that usually occur on thin or glabrous (hairless and smooth) skin surfaces, especially on th…e top of toes or fingers. They can sometimes occur on the thicker palmar or plantar skin surfaces. Corns form when the pressure point against the skin traces an ellipticalor semi-elliptical path. The center of which is at the point ofpressure, gradually widening. If there is constant stimulation of thetissues producing the corns, even after the corn is removed or thepressure surgically removed, the skin may continue to grow as a corn..
The name callum comes from its appearance under the microscope. The hard part at the center of the corn resembles a barleyhare, that is, a funnel with a broad raised top and a pointed bottom."Corn" used to be a generic term for grain, and the name stuck. Thescientific name is heloma . Hard corns are called heloma durum, while soft corns are called heloma molle..
The place of occurrence differentiates between soft and hard corns.Hard corns occur on dry, flat surfaces of skin. Soft corns (frequentlyfound between two toes) stay moist, keeping the surrounding skin soft.The corn's center is not soft, however. 1 .
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callus (MORE)
There are no other ingredients in the actual corn, but canned cornusually adds water, and if the corn has been made into anythingelse, like chips or cornbread or tortillas, th…en there willsometimes be other things like preservatives perhaps. (MORE)
Typically around July, the tassel on top of the corn plant fertilizes the silks (those stringy things when you husk sweet corn) on the ear of corn. After the pollen gets on th…e end of the silk, it travels down into the ear where it pollinates the kernel. Each kernel has its own silk. After fertilization, the ear starts forming. Pollination is dependent on when you plant and the temperature outside. So when you see the tassel at the top open up, the ear will start forming in the coming weeks. (MORE)
Corn originated in South and Middle/Central America with the Incas and the Aztecs. The official name for corn is maize and once grew wild and still does in remote areas. Over …many years select pieces of corn were choosen and then cultivated to create better and better corn. Once the Indians began trading northward with other tribes, the crop spread to North America. The name corn is a generic European term for any type of grain but in America we know the name to be the kernals on a cobb. (MORE)