Fun Facts About Corn
Who doesn’t love corn in all its forms: cereal, popcorn, or fresh off the stalk? Learn more about this grain with these fun facts about corn.
Basic Facts About Corn
Corn is a cereal plant. Cereal plants are a form of grass that are cultivated for their grain.
It has a single stalk that grows between four and thirteen feet.
Corn requires warm days to flower; it is typically grown in the summer in most places.
The corn plant has shallow roots, so it needs regular watering.
Sweet corn takes 60 to 100 days to grow from spout to harvest.
Now that you know some basic facts about corn, let’s explore some fun facts about corn!
This article contains affiliate links to things that you might like.
10 Fun Facts About Corn
You won’t believe some of these fascinating facts about corn! Who knew a grain could be so interesting?
An Ear of Corn has an Average of 800 Kernels
Have you ever counted the number of kernels on your ear of corn?
It would be a high number! The average ear of corn has 16 rows of kernels and around 800 individual kernels.
The Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Corn is 36 inches long. That’s longer than a baseball bat!
It was grown by Bernard Lavery in the U.K. in 1994.
Baby Corn is Not a Variety of Corn
Have you ever had a stirfry with those tiny ears of corn? What kind are those?
They are not a distinct variety of corn.
It is the second ear that sprouts from the top of sweet corn.
Corn Comes in Many Colors
Corn is not just yellow. It comes in red, purple, blue, brown, and white. There is even a rainbow corn with kernels of different colors!
These varieties have names like Glass Gem, Jaguar Priest, and Jimmy Red.
Only 1% of Corn is Sweet Corn
America is dotted with corn fields, but most of those fields don’t contain the luscious sweet corn we eat on summer days.
Sweet corn accounts for only 1% of corn grown annually.
A starchier (and much less sweet) variety of corn is called field corn.
Field corn is grown for livestock feed, ethanol production, and manufactured goods such as cornstarch, corn cereal, and corn oil.
Popcorn comes from a particular variety of corn.
Most People Call Corn Maize
Outside the U.S., most people call corn “maize.”
Maize is a word from the Taino people (indigenous people from the Caribbean islands).
Maize means “sacred mother” or “giver of life.”
The Taino people relied on corn as a mainstay of their diet.
Corn Has Silk
Corn doesn’t have silk thread like the kind you see in cloth (silkworms make that).
But an ear of corn does have cream, shiny threads that extend out of the top of the ear of corn.
These are called silks.
There is a silk thread for every kernel on the ear.
If a corn ear has 800 kernels, there are 800 silks!
No wonder it takes a minute to shuck an ear of corn!
Although if you are the world record holder, you can shuck twelve ears of corn in a minute!
Fireworks Use Corn
Corn contains dextrin, which firework manufacturers use to control the burn rate of a firework.
Fireworks must explode at the right time and burn at the proper speed. Corn helps with that!
Corn Is Grown in Every US State
The United States grows 1/3 of the world’s corn.
In fact, corn is grown in every U.S. State! Iowa produces the most corn.
In Kansas, corn is grown in every single county.
Worldwide, corn grows on every continent except Antarctica.
The Tallest Sweet Corn Plant Measures 48 Feet
On March 7, 2021, the Guinness World Record for the World’s Tallest Sweet Corn Plant was set in New York.
The plant was 48 feet, 2 inches.
You’d need a fireman’s ladder to pick corn off that stalk!
There Were Corn Clubs
You could have joined a corn club if you were a boy attending school 100 years ago.
Members of the club each grew corn on one acre of land under the supervision of a club leader.
The boys were allowed to keep any profits they grew on their land. They used these funds to buy supplies they could not afford otherwise.
Club members also competed in annual competitions and were awarded prizes for the best quality of corn.
The club aimed to improve agriculture at the turn of the century.
They influenced the development of the 4-H organization.
Interesting Facts About Corn
You may always have liked corn, but now you know some fun facts about this amazing plant!
The next time you bite into a juicy ear of corn, think about some of these incredible facts.
