Talk:Zea (plant)
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[edit]I am going to grow teosinte in the greenhouse and currently I'm trying to persuade the seeds to germinate. In the wikipedia article about teosinte I read that seeds easily germinate if treated with diluted hydrogen peroxide. I would be very grateful if anyone could point me to the source of this information, since it would be very helpful to know the concentration of hydrogen peroxide and duration of the treatment.
I've tried soaking teosinte (Zea mays ssp. parviglumis) seeds in 20% hydrogen peroxide overnight and have had pretty good success in getting the plants to germinate in the greenhouse. I found this protocol in the following forum discussion at CIMMYT:
http://www.cimmyt.org/abc/geneflow/geneflow_pdf_engl/Geneflow_Group2.pdf —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mbhufford (talk • contribs) 19:23, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
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This page needs an image of the actual grains. The plant is not enough to understand its difference from ears of corn.
[edit]See the title Avram Primack (talk) 23:09, 29 September 2008 (UTC)
Hello. I believe that the two grass plants illustrated are species of Tripsacum (Gama Grass) and therefore should be removed from the article on the species of Zea known as teosinte. It is all very confusing because, as the article on teosinte indicates, sometimes in Mexico Tripsacum species are known by the common name teosinte. In English, teosinte always refers to species of Zea and species of Tripsacum are known as gama grass. I visited the Ethnobotanical Garden in Oaxaca in July of 2006 and the guide referred to these same grass plants as teosinte. The large plant, appears to be Tripsacum x andersonii; close-up photos that I took show the inflorescence to be typical for the genus and this particular hybrid: finger-like clusters of spikelet-bearing rachises with indurate pistillate florets below and paired sterile staminate spikelets above. I did not pay much attention to the smaller plant but its habit is consistent with "Tripsacum", not "Zea". [1]Waltur (talk) 03:14, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
References
- ^ de Wit, J. M. J., J. R. Gray, and J. R. Harlan. 1976. Systematics of Tripsacum (Gramineae). Phytologia 33: 203-227.
Paraphyletic group or full genus?
[edit]Is this article about the full genus? Zea (genus) currently redirects here. However teosintes are a paraphyletic group, because Zea mays spp. mays is not a teosinte. Esmito (talk) 13:51, 22 April 2010 (UTC)
I notice that in a May 2010 edit, "as may a cycad" was changed to "and may be a cycad".
Actually, I think the former was more plausible. For the varieties of Tripsacum they're referring to to be cycads is implausible because cycads are not closely related to the grasses, including Tripsacum. That's what "and may be a cycad" would mean. But for two species, not closely related, to share the same common name is quite plausible (and is the topic of the rest of the sentence), and I think that's what they meant by "as may a cycad:" That some species of cycad is called "teosinte" locally, even though it's not related.
If I don't hear an objection in a few days I'll change it back (or, preferably, to something a little clearer). -- Why Not A Duck 20:55, 30 November 2010 (UTC)
Why does "Maize Evolution" link to "Artificial Selection"
[edit]This makes little sense to me. The article is not specific to maize and it isn't a general description of evolution, even if you restricted the link to that word. CarlFink (talk) 16:56, 6 February 2011 (UTC)
Need better images and description of teosinte
[edit]I'm just a casual reader, but so far as I'm concerned this article is completely missing information about the most interesting characteristics of this plant. I want answers to questions like: Where are the ears on a teosinte plant? How big are the ears? Where are the tassels relative to ears? How many stems arise from the root crown? How big is the plant?
Given the HUGE apparent differences in form between teosinte and modern cultivated maize, it would be very interesting to see an 'evolution of man' type progression of forms with estimated dates attached. What did 'corn' look like at first European contact vs. today. Perhaps these questions could be best answered in the maize entry, but the info is missing there as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.67.251.101 (talk) 21:44, 28 May 2011 (UTC)
Section needs updating.
[edit]The section 'Origin of maize and interaction with teosintes' should be brought up to date and should not use outdated sources (pre 2000). Disproven theories should only be mentioned at the end of the section, and clearly note they have been eliminated as possibilities.. Genetic analysis has shown that maize is a variety of teosinte. --Aflafla1 (talk) 02:17, 2 May 2014 (UTC)