The corn plant is a tall annual grass with a stout, erect, solid stem.
The large narrow leaves have wavy margins and are spaced alternately on opposite sides of the stem.

Of all the grains eaten in the world, corn is surrounded by more legends and folklore than any other.

Corn has been planted, tended, harvested, and consumed for millennia, and so it’s no wonder that there are myths about the magical properties of this grain.

Maize was the main cereal grown in Central and South America long before Christopher Columbus ventured to the ‘New World’.

By the late 15th and early 16th centuries the crop had been brought to Europe.

Technically a grain rather than a vegetable, the Cherokees used maize to treat kidney stones, while the Navajo people used it to ease sore throats.
Many native Americans used the leaves as ‘chewing gum’.

The Mayans worshipped the maize god for thousands of years.
In their mythology the god was beheaded at harvest time, bur came back to life at the start of the next growing season.

Did you know?
Maize is an important ingredient of Bourbon whiskey!

This is a study of ripe sweetcorn plant, sketched with charcoal and roughly A1 in size.