C is for Corn Cob.... sort of....IMG_8116
So, what sort of corn is this??? you may ask!
This past summer, I threw out dried corn and peanuts for the wild turkeys, who come to my backyard almost daily.
One of the corn seeds germinated and grew a corn plant.
But, corn is fertilized by the wind. The tassel on the top of the corn stalk carries the pollen, and the tubes receiving the pollen are what we call "Corn Silk", and they are on the baby corn cob.
It takes wind to blow the pollen from the tassels, way up high, to the corn silk, down below. That is why corn is always planted in at least a small patch, or three rows... so that the pollen from one plant can drift down to the corn silk on other plants.
My poor little corn plant, all by itself, actually did try to grow an ear of corn, but, since the pollination had to come totally from its own tassel, only a few pollen grains made it accurately down below to the corn silk.
I was amused at the result, so I kept it sitting around, and now it has made itself useful, for February Alphabet Fun Month!
C is for Corn Cob.... sort of....IMG_8116
So, what sort of corn is this??? you may ask!
This past summer, I threw out dried corn and peanuts for the wild turkeys, who come to my backyard almost daily.
One of the corn seeds germinated and grew a corn plant.
But, corn is fertilized by the wind. The tassel on the top of the corn stalk carries the pollen, and the tubes receiving the pollen are what we call "Corn Silk", and they are on the baby corn cob.
It takes wind to blow the pollen from the tassels, way up high, to the corn silk, down below. That is why corn is always planted in at least a small patch, or three rows... so that the pollen from one plant can drift down to the corn silk on other plants.
My poor little corn plant, all by itself, actually did try to grow an ear of corn, but, since the pollination had to come totally from its own tassel, only a few pollen grains made it accurately down below to the corn silk.
I was amused at the result, so I kept it sitting around, and now it has made itself useful, for February Alphabet Fun Month!