Flint corn (''

Zea mays Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

'' var. ''indurata''; also known as Indian corn or sometimes calico corn) is a variant of

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

, the same species as common corn. Because each kernel has a hard outer layer to protect the soft

endosperm The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the Embryo#Pla ...

, it is likened to being hard as

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

, hence the name. It is one of six major types of corn, the others being

dent corn Dent corn, also known as grain corn, is a type of field corn with a high soft starch content. It received its name because of the small indentation, or "dent", at the crown of each Corn kernel, kernel on a ripe ear of corn. Reid's Yellow Dent is ...

pod corn Pod corn or wild maize is a variety of maize (corn). It is not a wild ancestor of maize but rather a mutant that forms leaves around each kernel. Pod corn (''tunicata'' Sturt) is not grown commercially, but it is preserved in some localities. P ...

popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns, or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated. The term also refers to the snack food produced by the expansion. It is one of the oldest snacks, with evidence of p ...

flour corn Flour corn (''Zea mays'' var. ''amylacea'') is a variety of corn with a soft starchy endosperm and a thin pericarp. It is primarily used to make corn flour. This type, frequently found in Aztec and Inca graves, is widely grown in the drier pa ...

, and

sweet corn Sweet corn (''Zea mays'' convar. ''saccharata'' var. ''rugosa''), also called sweetcorn, sugar corn and pole corn, is a variety of maize grown for human consumption with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally occurring rec ...

History

With less soft

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diet ...

than

(''

indentata''), flint corn does not have the dents in each kernel from which dent corn gets its name. This is one of the three types of corn cultivated by Native Americans, both in New England and across the northern tier, including tribes such as the

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska * ...

on the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

Archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

s have found evidence of such corn cultivation in what is now the United States before 1000 BC. Corn was initially domesticated in Mexico by native peoples about 9,000 years ago. They used many generations of selective breeding to transform a wild

teosinte ''Zea'' is a genus of flowering plants in the Poaceae, grass family. The best-known species is ''Z. mays'' (variously called maize, corn, or Indian corn), one of the most important crops for human societies throughout much of the world. The four ...

grass with small grains into the rich source of food that is modern ''Zea mays''.

Distinctive traits

Because flint corn has a very low water content, it is more freezing-resistant than other vegetables. It was the only

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

crop to survive

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

's infamous "

Year Without a Summer The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by . Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest of any on record between 1766 and 2000, resultin ...

" of 1816.

Coloration

The coloration of flint corn often differs from white and yellow dent corns, many of which were later bred. Most flint corn is multi-colored. Like the Linnaeus variant of maize, any kernel may contain the yellow pigment

zeaxanthin Zeaxanthin is one of the most common carotenoids in nature, and is used in the xanthophyll cycle. Synthesized in plants and some micro-organisms, it is the pigment that gives paprika (made from bell peppers), corn, saffron, goji ( wolfberries) ...

but at more varying concentrations. Regional varieties with specific coloration include

blue corn 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 grown in Mexico, the Southwestern United States, and the Southeastern United States. It i ...

and

purple corn Purple corn () or purple maize is group of flint maize varieties (Flint_corn, Zea mays indurata) originating in South America, descended from a common ancestral variety termed "kʼculli" in Quechuan languages, Quechua. It is most commonly grown i ...

Glass Gem corn Glass Gem Corn is an American heirloom flint corn, or maize. It is a variety of what people call "Indian corn" and is considered unique due to its rainbow coloring. Glass Gem Corn has been called the "poster child" for the return to heirloom seed ...

became internet famous in 2012 when photos of this brightly colored flint corn went viral.

Uses

Popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns, or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated. The term also refers to the snack food produced by the expansion. It is one of the oldest snacks, with evidence of p ...

(''Zea mays everta'', "corn turned inside out") is considered a variant of this type. It has a hard, slightly translucent kernel.''New Oxford American Dictionary'' Flint corn is also the type of corn preferred for making

hominy Hominy is a food item produced from dried maize (corn) kernels that have been treated with an alkali, in a process called nixtamalization ( is the Nahuatl word for "hominy"). "Lye hominy" is a type of hominy made with lye. History The process ...

, a staple food in the Americas since

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

times. In the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, the

Visayan white corn Visayan white corn, also known as Visayan white flint or Tinigib, is an heirloom cultivar of flint corn from the Visayas Islands of the Philippines. It is considered a secondary staple food, staple cereal in the Philippines (particularly in the ...

is an heirloom flint corn variety that is a secondary staple cereal in the country. It descended from the corn introduced by the Spanish during the early Spanish colonial period (1565–1898). It can be eaten boiled or grilled, used in a wide variety of traditional dishes as an ingredient, or ground into

grits Grits (stylized as GRITS) is an American Christian hip hop group from Nashville, Tennessee. Their name is an acronym, which stands for "Grammatical Revolution In the Spirit". GRITS is made up of Stacey "Coffee" Jones and Teron "Bonafide" Carter ...

that are eaten as a common

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

substitute. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, the flint corn cultivars that have large proportions of kernels with

hue In color theory, hue is one of the properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as ...

s outside the

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...

range are primarily used ornamentally as part of

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...

decorations. They are often called either "ornamental corn" or "Indian corn", although each of those names also has other meanings. These varieties can be popped and eaten as popcorn, although many people incorrectly believe that such colored varieties are not palatable or are poisonous.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3303407 Maize varieties