Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Corn - Zea mays   L.
Members of Poaceae:
Only member of Zea in NC.
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Section 5 » Order Cyperales » Family Poaceae
AuthorL.
DistributionScattered records from across much of the state. Doubtless elsewhere. First collected in Rowan County in 1894. Specimens from Beaufort, Guilford, Jackson, Robeson, and Wake counties are from cultivated plants.

Native to Mexico, brought into cultivation thousands of years ago and brought to the southwestern U.S. (at least).
AbundanceRarely found as an escape from cultivation, but could turn up anywhere.
HabitatRoadsides, margins of fallow fields, sandy soil of bottomlands, alluvial woods, loamy sand fields, long-abandoned nursery.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting June-October.
IdentificationThis major food crop hardly needs any description, especially as hundreds of thousands of acres in NC are planted each year.
Taxonomic Comments
Other Common Name(s)Maize
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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