Agriculture




Guatemala and its neighboring areas, are the habitat of the Euchlæna luxurians, the wild grass, hybridized with Tripsacum spp from which, the Maize Zea Luxurians, found only in Guatemala and Nicaragua (formerly Zea Guatemala) is derived. It is named "Teosinte" a name that came with the first Guatemalan accession and seems not to have been used in ancient Mexico, the Zea Mays is the variety developed by cultivation. Zea mays ssp. huehuetenangensis is the only teosinte polen, with the same size of the modern Maize. No teosinte has been found in the Caribbean watershed of lowland Mesoamerica, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Yucatan Peninsula. Irene Holst et al,PNAS | November 6, 2007 |