teosinte

plant morphology is a puzzler at times...at least for me...the top photo is of one of my last sightings of new growth perennial teosinte ( zea diploperennis ) from the perennial garden project's last season in 2014...the second photo is of a plant in my back yard right now that is supposed to be the annual strain zea mays parvaglumis...and the third is another plant germinated from the same batch od seeds...i am not especially surprised at the resemblance between the perrenial and annual plants in the first two photos...they are related...but the difference between the two plants form the same seed batch has me wondering..it looks far more like northern tepehuan teosinte which i still have seed for..but that is in the freezer and i have not thawed any since i put ti there...not surprising to find plants from the same strain with different appearances...no two potato plant look exactly alike either...but the difference between these two is startling..look at the tillers on the plant in the middle photo and the relative lack of them on the third plant...it is early in the season...appearances could change...we'll see.