Q 01/05

Outside North America, corn is usually known by what name?

A) Millet

B) Maize

C) Sorghum

D) Barley

Answer · why

B) Maize

Linnaeus took the word from the Spanish maíz, itself from the Taíno mahis.

Q 02/05

Corn was first domesticated about 9,000 years ago in which present-day country?

A) Peru

B) Mexico

C) Guatemala

D) Brazil

Answer · why

B) Mexico

Its wild ancestor, teosinte, is a short bushy grass that looks nothing like a modern cornstalk.

Q 03/05

What is the wild grass from which corn was domesticated?

A) Sorghum

B) Einkorn

C) Tripsacum

D) Teosinte

Answer · why

D) Teosinte

Just two genes account for most of the difference between the bushy wild plant and the single tall stalk of maize.

Q 04/05

Native Americans grew corn alongside beans and squash in a planting system known as what?

A) The Holy Trinity

B) The Triple Crown

C) The Three Brothers

D) The Three Sisters

Answer · why

D) The Three Sisters

Cornstalks held up the beans, beans fixed nitrogen, and squash leaves shaded out weeds.

Q 05/05

The male flowers at the top of a cornstalk are called what?

A) The silk

B) The tassel

C) The husk

D) The ear

Answer · why

B) The tassel

Their pollen drifts on the wind to the silks lower down; each silk strand leads to one potential kernel.