Twin Corn

Here is a reproductive oddity – twin corn! This specimen came from my local grocery store, and piqued my curiosity about corn in general, and the phenomena of “twin ears” or “double ears”.

Twin corn - two ears of corn from a single shank.

Corn plants are monocots that grow a single stalk from 7 to 10 feet high, with multiple nodes. Leaves wrap around the stalk at the nodes. Corn plants are monoecious, with the male tassels growing at the top of the plant and producing pollen; and the female floral structure, or ears, growing at the nodes and providing the eggs. Corn silk attaches to each egg, or kernel, and pollination occurs when pollen falls on the silk. Corn, or maize, originated in the Americas, and is an example of ancient genetic engineering.

Roger W. Elmore and Lori J. Abendroth reported on multiple corn ears for Iowa State University in November 2006. Companies have been developing corn hybrids to produce multiple ears of corn per node (sometimes up to eight ears on a node). The extra ears are typically barren. In other instances, two ear shoots share a single shank on the same node. The second ear is typically much smaller with fewer kernels. According to the article, multiple ear shoots sharing the same shank is not unusual, but, in 2006, the number of “bouquets” of up to three to five ear shoots sharing the same shank increased significantly, and could not be explained. The concern was that the corn yield would be reduced by this oddity. They cited a report by R.L. (Bob) Nielsen from Purdue University about these “bouquets”.

In the end, I separated the twin ears, boiled them with the rest of the corn ears, and served them up with butter, salt, and pepper. The smaller twin was as flavorful as its sibling, but was smaller and with fewer kernels. Eating corn from the smaller ear reminded me of Tom Hanks, as Josh, eating the mini corn appetizer in Penny Marshall’s 1988 movie, Big!

Learn More:

• Plant & Soil Sciences eLibrary. “Anatomy and Reproduction of Corn”. Learn basic information about corn plants, and how they reproduce.
• Iowa State University, Agronomy Extension. “Multiple Ears Per Node: Iowa 2006 Situation & Hypothesis”. Roger W. Elmore and Lori J. Abendroth, Extension Corn Production, Iowa State University. November 2006. Learn about multiple corn ears per node, and per shank.
• Purdue University, Department of Agronomy. Corny News Network Articles, “A Problem with “Bouquets”. R.L. (Bob) Nielsen, September 12, 2016. Learn about the phenomena of corn “bouquets” from a single shank.