Is corn a vegetable or a grain?
Corn can be a vegetable, a grain or even a fruit, depending on how it is eaten. Sweet corn on the cob is treated as a vegetable, while dried corn used for flour and popcorn is a grain.
Botanically, each corn kernel is a fruit called a caryopsis, in which the seed and fruit wall are fused together. This is the same type of fruit found in wheat and rice. So, from a scientific point of view, corn kernels are whole grains, which are a type of fruit.
In the kitchen, fresh sweet corn, picked while the kernels are soft and juicy, is usually counted as a vegetable. Field corn, harvested when the kernels are dry and hard, is ground into cornmeal, flour and grits or used for animal feed and ethanol. Popcorn is a special type of corn whose kernels explode when heated.
A global staple
Corn, also called maize, was domesticated in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from a wild grass called teosinte. Today, it is the most produced grain crop in the world, with the United States the largest grower, followed by China and Brazil.
Did You Know?
Each strand of corn silk connects to a single kernel, so an ear of corn usually has about the same number of silks as kernels.