just a few better ( i hope ) photos to illustrate a significant difference between Zea mexicana and Zea mays and some equally significant similarities...the top photo is of the tillers coming out of the base of the teosinte...teosinte develops branches as it grows, the maize does not...whether this was a trait selected against during domestication i cannot say...at least not now...more research...but it obviously disappeared along the way to its modern form...like teosinte, the maize develops alternate leaves from a central stalk, branching off on alternate sides as the plant grows...a close look at the photos of the maize shows that each plant has produced a single large ear...if the season were long enough for me to bring the Zea mexican to maturity it would produce multiple, much smaller ears, another significant difference that was doubtlessly selected for during domestication and which i will unfortunately have to find an illustration for from somewhere beyond the range of my own camera.
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