what is this? a member of the zea family for sure…my yard is a family reunion of zea…but which one? i am inclined to say zea mays for a couple of reasons…but not being a biologist or a botanist they might be mistaken…just what it seems like to me…first there’s no branches…all the teosinte i have grown has branched above ground ( not at the base like a bunch grass )…second the support roots ( a sure sign of zeaness ) are only at the bottom of the stalk…look back at all the photos of teosinte support roots i have posted and you’ll see the support roots go right on up the stalks growing out of nodes along the way…the northern tepehuan teosinte’s support roots look absolutely alien ( which i am sure I will be remarking on if the plan to grow a large number of individuals next season is successful…probably even if there’s only one )..my third line of reasoning is the ear…it is a single one…last year’s northern tepehuan plant produced forty-four…a couple of this year’s hopi blue maize produced only one…this one has only one and it is by far larger than any teosinte seed ear that any of my plants have produced…on the other hand it is awfully small for a maize ear…unless the plant got a late start…germinating later in the summer…and so is a bit stunted…it’s also in a shady bed…not an optimum place for maize…perhaps i dropped a seed inadvertently ( it wasn’t intentionally planted there ) and it took off when the weather got hot…shade or no shade…my plan is to let it go as far as it can…which can’t be much farther on the eleventh of October…and then open up the ear to see if it confirms anything…multiple rows on the cob ( and there is a cob in there )= maize…one row= teosinte…more on this as it develops.
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