It is the most primitive and possibly oldest form of corn. Pod corn is not of any commercial importance; it is used in scientific research.
The premise that pod corn was the progenitor of maize was appealing because their principle morphological characteristic, enclosed kernel in floral bracts is nearly a universal characteristic of wild grasses.
There is archeological evidence that the earliest maize was a pod corn variety. Archeologists and researchers have conducted studies for years in the attempt to find the origins and antiquity of corn. Archeologists found pod corn in the Bat Cave of New Mexico that was radiocarbon dated as 5,600 years fossil.
Pod corn was now to be more resistant than other varieties to insect predation. Its morphological characteristics were ideally suited to what many scholars has associated with a wild variety of Zea.
What is Pod corn?
