Maize Research

You may have noticed how corn plants growing on the edge of a field always seem to be shorter than their neighbors.

I’d always assumed corn plants on a field’s edge were shorter because they had greater access to light. Alternatively, one of the blogs I follow recently proposed it was due to thigmotropism. Thigmotropism is basically a plant’s sense of touch. The physical push of wind makes many plants grow stouter than they otherwise would and is why the same type of tree gets shorter and craggier the farther up a mountainside it’s found (not, as one hack “scientist” used to propose at forestry meetings, due to historic pruning acorn cultivation by Amerindians).

To clear this all up, I do what I normally do – I asked a professor.

Continue reading…

This summer will be my 4th year growing corn for my research. Every year, I’ve seen some crazy things in the transgenic and non-transgenic fields alike. For example:

On the left is “tassel ear”, where silks and kernels (female, seed producing plant parts) appear on the tassel (male, pollen producing plant parts), where they are most certainly NOT supposed to be – it’s ok for sorghum and other grasses, but not for corn! On the right, there are at least 2 ears where there should be one, and those leaves poking out between the two might be more ears. Neither of these plants are transgenic or carry heritable mutations that cause these strange phenotypes. Both transgenic and non-transgenic fields are treated with a herbicide before we plant but after that the plants are grown with no additives, chemical or otherwise.

What’s going on? Continue reading…