Maize, also known as corn in North American and Australian English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native Americans planted it alongside beans and squashes in the Three Sisters polyculture. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern commercial varieties, these are usually yellow or white; other varieties can be of many colors.
Maize
Ancient Mesoamerican relief sculpture of maize, National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico
Many small male flowers make up the male inflorescence, called the tassel.
Female inflorescence, with young silk
Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture. The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass.
Poaceae
Grass flowers
Drawing of Anomochloa marantoidea, one of the most primitive living grass species
Setaria verticillata from Panicoideae