Zea mexicana
(Schrad.) Kuntze
Teosinte, Annual teosinte
fodderfoodlipidssweetener
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(c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc
(c) jcdelgado, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) jcdelgado, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Shoots, Seeds, Spikes, Seeds - coffee
Young shoots are boiled and eaten. Whole mature seeds are soaked in water and chewed, or dried kernels can be popped like popcorn. Young immature spikes are eaten. Seeds can be roasted and added to coffee.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant.
Central America, Mexico, North America,
Countries: Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago, United States, St Vincent
How to Identify
A tropical grass and wild ancestor of maize, with edible young shoots, immature spikes, and seeds that can be prepared in multiple ways.
Names & Synonyms
Maiz safe
Euchlaena mexicana Schrad.Zea mays subsp. mexicana (Schrad.) Iltis
References (5)
- Casas, A., et al, 1996, Plant Management Among the Nahua and the Mixtec in the Balsas River Basin, Mexico: An Ethnobotanical Approach to the Study of Plant Domestication. Human Ecology, Vol. 24, No. 4 pp. 455-478 (As Zea mays subsp. mexicana)
- Facciola, S., 1998, Cornucopia 2: a Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications, p 183 (As Zea mays subsp. mexicana)
- Kermath, B. M., et al, 2014, Food Plants in the Americas: A survey of the domesticated, cultivated and wild plants used for Human food in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. On line draft. p 938
- T. E. Post & C. E. O. Kuntze, Lex. gen. phan. 599. 1903 (Reeves & Mangelsd., Amer. J. Bot. 29:817. 1942) (As Zea mays subsp. mexicana)
- Tanaka, (As Zea mays subsp. mexicana)
