TEOSINTE

(Zea mexicana or Euchlaena mexicana), tall, stout, annual grass of the family Poaceae, native to Mexico. Teosinte is related to corn (maize) and grows in large clumps, with tassels (staminate flowers) like those of corn. It usually branches at the base. The bundles of fruiting spikes, enclosed in husks, with the silk (long styles) hanging from the upper ends, are somewhat similar to the ears of corn. In the early 1980s botanists crossed species of corn with teosinte to produce a perennial variety of corn.