PHYTOLITHS IN THE REPRODUCTIVE STRUCTURES OF MAIZE AND TEOSINTE - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF MAIZE EVOLUTION

Analysis of phytoliths from the reproductive structures of maize, teosinte, and Tripsacum indicates that teosinte produces phytoliths differentiable from both of its near relatives. Phytoliths from the cobs of Argentine popcorn, a primitive race thought to more closely resemble the earliest archaeological maize from the Tehuacan Valley, Mexico, than any extant race thus far examined, provide signatures that may be unique to maize. Phytoliths from reproductive structures in Zea should provide a means of discrimination between teosinte and maize in the archaeological record and study of the earliest evolution of maize. Such aspects as loci of cellular silicification and consequent phytolith morphology in teosinte fruitcases and maize cobs support hypotheses of maize evolution that call for morphological change of fruitcases into cobs under human selection. © 1993 Academic Press Limited.