Subject: Re: Q: perennial maize available anywhere?

From: [email-masked] (Marty Sachs)
Date: Sat, 07 Oct 1995 11:27:46 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Tero
Laakkonen) wrote:

:hi,
:
:i heard that a strain of perennial maize "Teosinte" was found in mexico
:a few years ago. have there been efforts to produce a perennial maize
:for northern climates and if so is it commonly available?
:
:there are some (very few actually) maize growers in my area - southern
:finland - but annual strains are boring when perennial ones exist.

There are two types of perennial Zea, both of which are like teosinte (Zea
mays ssp mexicana) in female flower morphology: 1) Zea perennis [a
tetraploid]  2) Zea diploperennis [a diploid that can be crossed with Zea
mays ssp mays to produce fertile progeny and backcrossed and selected to
give perennial maize].  However, for obvious reasons, seed companies have
not put much effort into developing useful maize cultivars with the
'perennial' trait.

Because of the short growing season in Northern Europe, I would doubt that
perennial maize would offer any major advantage over annual maize for
producing seed.

A possible source of Zea perennis and/or Zea diploperennis seeds is:

       Mark Millard 
       Maize Curator
       North Central Region Plant Introduction Station (NC7)
       USDA/ARS & Iowa State University 
       State and Mortensen Rd. 
       Ames, IA 50011, USA

       Phone: 1-515-292-6502
       FAX: 1-515-292-6690 
       E-Mail: [email-masked]

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Marty Sachs                 Director, Maize Genetics COOP Stock Center
USDA/ARS & Agronomy/UIUC    [email-masked] [internet]
S108 Turner Hall            msachs@UIUCVMD [bitnet] 
1102 S. Goodwin Ave.        (217) 244-0864 [phone]
Urbana, IL  61801-4798      (217) 333-6064 [FAX]
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