Blue corn (also known as Hopi maize, Yoeme Blue, Tarahumara Maiz Azul, and Rio Grande Blue) is a group of several closely related varieties of

flint corn Flint corn (''Zea mays'' var. ''indurata''; also known as Indian corn or sometimes calico corn) is a variant of maize, the same species as common corn. Because each kernel has a hard outer layer to protect the soft endosperm, it is likened to bein ...

grown in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

, and the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...

. It is one of the main types of corn used for the traditional Southern and Central Mexican food known as tlacoyo. It was originally developed by the

Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...

, the Pueblo Indians of the Rio Grande in Arizona, and several Southeastern tribes, including the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

. It remains an essential part of Hopi dishes like piki bread. Blue corn meal is a corn meal that is ground from whole blue corn and has a sweet flavor. It is also a staple of New Mexican cuisine used commonly to make

tortilla A tortilla (, ) is a thin, circular unleavened flatbread from Mesoamerica originally made from maize hominy meal, and now also from wheat flour. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl speakers called tortillas ''tlaxcalli'' (). First made by the indi ...

s. Blue corn contains

anthocyanin Anthocyanins (), also called anthocyans, are solubility, water-soluble vacuole, vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart named a chemical compou ...

s, which give the corn its blue color.

Varieties

Five Hopi blue corn cultivars identified in the 1950s showed significant differences for several traits, such as plant height, kernel weight, width of kernel, and thickness of kernel. The different varieties have a color range from nearly black to blue-grey, with names derived from the "standard" blue (), hard blue (), and grey-blue (). The traditional Hopi blue corn varieties are extremely drought-tolerant, deep-rooted, and somewhat short plants, seldom exceeding in height. The Rio Grande pueblo blue corn varieties are taller, reaching , higher yielding, and not as drought-tolerant as the Hopi varieties. Both varieties of blue corn prefer deep, sandy soils. Other native varieties of blue corn include ''Yoeme Blue'', a small kernel, short (), bushy, and heat-tolerant low desert blue corn variety cultivated on the Salt River Pima Reservation in Arizona, and the Tarahumara northern Mexican variety , cultivated in the high deserts bordering the Sierra Madre in Northern Mexico. is widely used to make tortillas and tamales in Mexico, as well as tesgüino, a Tarahumaran corn beer. A

heirloom variety of blue corn which originated from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is called ''Cherokee White Eagle Corn'' and is distributed to Cherokee tribal members from the Cherokee Nation Seed Bank. It is a tall variety, reaching , and is high yielding.

Tortilla protein content

In 100 grams of blue corn tortilla (Sakwavikaviki), the

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

content is 7.8%, compared to 5.7% in yellow corn tortillas.

Anthocyanins

Varieties of blue corn cultivated in the

vary in their respective contents of anthocyanins, the

polyphenol Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring phenols. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of which have been used historically as ...

pigment giving the corn its unique color. Anthocyanins having the highest contents are cyanidin 3-glucoside (most abundant),

pelargonidin Pelargonidin is an anthocyanidin, a type of plant pigment producing a characteristic orange color used in food and industrial dyes. Natural occurrences Presence in flowers Pelargonidin can be found in red geraniums (Geraniaceae). It is the pr ...

and peonidin 3-glucoside.

Uses

Food

Aside from its use in traditional Southwestern dishes of tortillas and cereal, blue corn is used commercially in products such as blue corn chips and blue corn pancake mix.

Symbolic

The Hopi use corn in religious rituals, placing it in a framework of directional associations in which yellow corn is associated with the Northwest, blue corn with the Southwest, red corn with the Southeast, white corn with the Northeast, black corn with the Above, and all-colored corn with the Below.

Gallery

File:Atole.jpg, blue corn

atole ''Atole'' (, believed to come from Nahuatl ''Aztec cuisine, ātōlli'' or from Mayan), also known as ''atolli'', ''atol'' and ''atol de elote'', is a traditional hot masa-based beverage of Mexicans, Mexican origin. Atole can have different flav ...

porridge File:¡Viva México en Xochimilco! 112.JPG, Tlacoyo, Mexican appetizer made of blue corn File:01 Blue Corn Quesadillas.jpg, Blue corn

quesadilla A quesadilla (; ; Mexican diminutive of ''quesada'') is a Mexican cuisine, Mexican dish consisting of a tortilla that is filled primarily with cheese, and sometimes meats, spices, and other fillings, and then cooked on a griddle or stove. Trad ...

References

{{corn Maize varieties Crops originating from Pre-Columbian North America Pre-Columbian Southwest cuisine Hopi culture Crops originating from indigenous Americans Plants used in Native American cuisine Crops originating from the United States