Flint corn, (Zea mays indurata; also known in most countries as Indian corn or sometimes calico corn) is the same species as, but a different variant of maize (var. Linnaeus). Because each kernel has a hard outer layer to protect the soft endosperm, it is likened to being hard as flint; hence the name.
With less soft starch than dent corn (Zea mays 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 by tribes such as the Pawnee on the Great Plains. Archeologists have found evidence of such corn cultivation by the Pawnee and others since at least 1250 AD. Cultivation of corn occurred hundreds of years earlier among the Mississippian culture people, whose civilization arose based on population density and trade because of surplus corn crops.
Read more about Flint Corn: Distinctive Traits, Uses
Famous quotes containing the words flint and/or corn:
“O sovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,
May hang no longer on me. Throw my heart
Against the flint and hardness of my fault,
Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder
And finish all foul thoughts. O Antony,
Nobler than my revolt is infamous,
Forgive me in thine own particular,
But let the world rank me in register
A master-leaver and a fugitive.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Those poor farmers who came up, that day, to defend their native soil, acted from the simplest of instincts. They did not know it was a deed of fame they were doing. These men did not babble of glory. They never dreamed their children would contend who had done the most. They supposed they had a right to their corn and their cattle, without paying tribute to any but their governors. And as they had no fear of man, they yet did have a fear of God.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)