When was corn first used

Follow Helen on Twitter. Image source, Thinkstock. Maize was first domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mexico between 10, and 6, years ago. Long history. Image source, Bruce Smith. This cob of corn is 5, years old. Also known as maize Indians throughout North and South America, eventually depended upon this crop for much of their food.

About years ago, as Indian people migrated north to the eastern woodlands of present day North America, they brought corn with them. When Europeans like Columbus made contact with people living in North and South America, corn was a major part of the diet of most native people. When Columbus "discovered" America, he also discovered corn. The history of maize is controversial, with scientists, historians and archaeologists proposing competing origin theories.

One thing that is widely accepted is where maize comes from. Most scientists agree that maize originated in central Mexico and was domesticated , years ago from a wild grass called teosinte. Teosinte looked nothing like modern maize, in particular due to its having smaller, fewer and more spaced out kernels, each surrounded by a tough casing.

While it is descended from Teosinte, modern day corn, with its closely-packed kernels, does not exist in the wild and could not survive without human agricultural intervention. Early farmers in Mexico domesticated Teosinte by selecting the biggest and best kernels until the crop we recognise today as maize was arrived at.

Maize spread fast because it was nutritious, easy to grow, easy to store and easy to carry. Domesticated maize initially spread south down the coast to Peru and beyond, as well as across the North Americas, until eventually Native Americans continent-wide had adopted it as a vital part of their diet. Before long, it was a staple food across most cultures in North and South America and the Caribbean. It was during this period that maize, along with three other crops that were subsequently to become vital staples in the Old World — potatoes, sweet potatoes and cassava — were brought to Europe.

Perhaps seed casings were removed using grinding stones. Or teosinte seeds may have been softened in water and then eaten directly with hulls spit out after partial chewing like sunflower seeds.

Eventually someone found a mutant with no seed cases, or softer ones, and teosinte became a better food crop. The difference between a single and multiply double kernel rows also involves mutant genes. One gene permitted teosinte kernels to grow in two alternating rows, somewhat like heads of rye or two-row barley. Other mutations meant two-row teosinte became four-row corn — and later eight-row corn.

Modern Ontario hybrids usually have 14, 16, 18 or 20 kernel rows. However, the original teosinte trait still exists in modern corn.

If the main ear does not pollinate properly, the side ears will sometimes enlarge and produce silks. The initial steps in domestication likely occurred as much as years earlier. Teosinte still crosses naturally with corn where teosinte grows wild near Mexican cornfields. Cross pollination occurred regularly during early days of domestication, adding new genes to the corn genetic base. A rapid expansion in corn ear size occurred about BC. Higher yields triggered a boom in human cultural development.

Corn served as the base — both nutritional and religious — for several Mexican societies including the successive Olmec, Mayan, Toltec and Aztec civilizations between BC and the time of Spanish conquest. Corn also dominated life for the Incas in South America. The first evidence of corn in the United States was found in caves in New Mexico, containing corn ear remnants from about BC. Corn was grown extensively from 0 to AD throughout Arizona and New Mexico using sophisticated irrigation schemes.

These major southwestern civilizations ended for unknown reasons about years before the Spanish conquest, leaving only the building ruins that are so intriguing to tourists today. However, some present-day Hopi, Navajo and other southwestern Indian communities still grow corn using traditional varieties.

Blue corn is popular.