The corn has tasseled in most areas of Nebraska.
And since Nebraska is all about corn,
it's time you shared in our excitement.
Most people know very little about
the pollination process of corn.
But success or failure during the period of pollination
greatly determines grain yield at harvest time.
During the course of development of the corn plant
the male component (the tassel) and the
female component (the ear) result.
The anthers are those red looking
things in the photo that hang from the tassel during pollination.
An anther and its attached filament comprise the stamen of the male flower.
Under a magnifying lens, anthers look somewhat like the double barrel of a shotgun.
An individual tassel produces approximately 6,000 pollen-bearing anthers,
although hybrids can vary greatly for this number.
Pollen is dispersed through pores that open at the tips of the anthers.
The yellow or white “dust-like” pollen that falls from a tassel represents millions of individual pollen grains. Estimates of the total number of pollen grains produced per tassel range from 2 to 25 million. Each pollen grain contains the male genetic material necessary for fertilizing the ovary of one potential kernel.
The female receptor on a corn plant is the silk.
The pollen is primarily distributed by wind from the tassels to the corn "silk"
which is actually the stigma and style of the corn ovary (kernal).
The pollen germinates sending a pollen tube through the silk into the ovule where the egg cell is located.
The sperm nucleus fertilizes the egg and a second sperm nucleus fertilizes the polar nuclei to form endosperm.
There is one silk strand for each kernal of corn on the cob.
Each piece of corn silk is attached to one kernel of corn through the cob.
The cob is just a piece that holds the kernels on the place that they are fertilized.
If you cut open a corn cob and look at it well,
you can see the pathways that the silk transmits the fertilization to the kernel.
p.s. This is not my cornfield. My corn is in the garden : )
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18 comments:
corn sex ed! love it! :)
I didn't know that about the kernels and silk. Awesome! :)
Almost sounded kinky for a bit there:@) Nice to know how things work, cool pics. I just had Jersey corn last night-yum! Wishing you a very fruitful year!
Great post. It amazing in todays world how many people have no idea on how plants pollinate and grow.
This is, indeed, interesting. I hope there's not gonna be a pop quiz.
Super lesson!
That is way more then I ever knew about corn. Fascinating and informative--thanks, Michaele!
I now know a lot more about corn than I ever did before. Between you and Gail of Faithfulness Farm, I have a been introduced to a whole new corn vocabulary!
Wonderful and informative post on corn! We had tried to raise it several times, however, the worms get to it first and what the worms don't get, the birds finish off. I love to see corn fields. Blessings,Kathleen
What a great post! Now that my family and I live in corn country, it's nice to know a little bit about all the corn crops growing around us!
Sounds kinda like an XXX rated process to me:) Thanks for the education into the making of my favorite vegetable.
I think this might be my favorite blog read of all time! Who knew?! So, teacher, I have a follow up question (picture me, the nerdy kid squirming in her seat, arm flayling about!)...so when we see corn at the grocery, it always has silk; does this mean only the "girl" corn is sold?
~Cindy
Cindy, the silk is on all ears of corn, as this the part that is pollinated by the pollen produced on the "tassel" or male part of the corn plant. So, there are no "boy" ears of corn. The kernels carry genetic information for both the male and the female parts, so the ears really aren't "girls" either. Hard to explain, but a cool process I think.
How can I be a farmer and not know any of this? Easy, I like you have only grown it in my garden. Thank you for the information it is fascinating when you think of how it works. B
WoW... I never really thought about how it all works. Great corn facts.
This was so interesting Michaele...it's actually quite a complicated process isn't it.
Neat!! I had no idea.
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