Why does sweetcorn get 'tassel ear'?

13th August 2022

Why does sweetcorn get 'tassel ear'?

It turns out that unlike most plants with separate male and female flowers, Zea flowers start off with both male and female plant parts but the unwanted ones don't develop, so the ovaries in flowers at the top of the stem wither and only anthers producing pollen grow, and lower down only the female flower parts survive.  After frost or other damage to the young plant, it can produce a side shoot from the base  ('tillers' - like grasses) which is reverts to evolutionary ancestors where both ear and tassels formed from the same flower.  The main stem produces cobs  as usual!

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