A-maize-ing Corn Facts

Mike Rankin
Crops and Soils Agent - Fond du Lac County
University of Wisconsin - Extension

• From 500 to 1000 spikelets form on each tassel (the male flower) with each spikelet containing two florets. Each floret contains three anthers from which pollen is released.
• Two to five million pollen grains are released per plant.
• It takes about a week for an individual plant to shed all of its pollen with the greatest volume of pollen being released on the second or third day.
• If anthers become wet, pollen shed is temporarily shutdown.
• The majority of pollen shed occurs in the morning when temperatures are moderate.
• Each corn plant has the potential to form from six to ten ears, although only one or two actually develop.
• Each ear shoot (the female flower) has the potential to develop about 1000 kernels (called ovules in the developmental stage) of corn. However, only 400 to 600 actually form on typical Wisconsin hybrids.
• A silk elongates from each ovule (potential kernel) site.
• A pollen grain must land on an individual silk if fertilization of the ovule is to occur.
• A pollen grain can land anywhere on the length of the silk. Once this happens, a pollen tube begins to grow inside the silk and fertilization of the ovule takes place within 24 hours.
• Silks are only receptive to pollen for about ten days after emergence from the husk.

For more information contact Mike Rankin