Races of Maize in México

RACES OF MAIZE IN MEXICO THEIR ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION E. J. Wellhausen, L. M. Roberts and E. Hernandez X. in collaboration with Paul C. Mangelsdorf An English edition of RAZAS DE MAlZ EN MEXICO by the same authors. First published in Mexico, April, 1951, as Folleto Tecnico No. 5, Oficina de Estudios Especiales, Secretaria de Agricultura y Ganaderia, Mexico, D. F. THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION of HARVARD UNIVERSITY 1952 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION............ .................. 9 HISTORYOF MAIZECLASSIFICATION .......................... 11 PREVIOUSSTUDIES OF MEXICANMAIZE ....................... 13 ANTIQUITYOF MAIZEIN MEXICO............................ 13 How RACESOF MAIZEHAVE ARISEN ....................... 19 CHARACTERSUSED IN CLASSIFICATION..................... 22 Vegetative Characters of the Plant ................... 23 Characters of the Tassel ............................. 25 Characters of the Ear ................................ 26 Physiological, Genetic and Cytological Characters .... 34 GEOGRAPHICALDISTRIBUTION .............................. 36 ORIGINSAND RELATIONSHIPS.............................. 43 EXISTINGRACES OF MAIZEIN MEXICO..................... 44 Ancient Indigenous Races ...................... 45 Palomero Toluqueño ................................. 47 Arrocillo Amarillo ................................... 52 Chapalote ......................................... 54 .................................... 58 Pre-Columbian Exotic Races ....................... 62 Cacahuacintle ........................................ 63 Harinoso de Ocho ................................... 67 Olotón .............................................. 73 Maíz Dulce ....................................... 77 Prehistoric Mestizos .................................... 80 Cónico ............................................ 82 Reventador ..................................... 90 Tabloncillo .................................... 97 Tehua ........................................... 105 Tepecintle ...................................... 109 Comiteco ....... ............................. 112 Jala ............. ............................. 119 Zapalote Chico ....................................... 126 Zapalote Grande .................................... 132 Pepitilla.. ............................................ 135 Olotillo .......................................... 141 Tuxpeño ........................................... 149 Vandeño .............................................. 155 Modern Incipient Races ................................ 161 Chalqueño ........................................... 162 Celaya ............................................... 171 Cónico Norteño ..................................... 178 Bolita ................................................. 185 Poorly Defined Races ................................... 189 Conejo ................................................ 189 Mushito ........................................ Complejo Serrano de Jalisco ......................... 191 Zamorano Amarillo .................................. 195 Maíz Blando de Sonora .............................. 196 Onaveño .............................. .......... 198 Dulcillo del Noroeste ...... ....................... 199 THECLASSIFICATION OF MAIZE IN RELATIONTO ITS IMPROVEMENT...................................... 199 SUMMARY.................................................... 203 LITERATURECITED ........................................... 206 APPENDIX .................................................... 209 FOREWORD When, in 1943, the Rockefeller Foundation, in cooperation with the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture began a program of practical maize improvement it became evident almost at once that a sur- vey of the native maize varieties was needed to serve as an inventory of the material available to the plant breeders. A systematic program of collection, originally wholly utilitarian in purpose, was begun. Varieties were assembled from all parts of Mexico and, in controlled experiments, were compared for productive- ness, disease resistance and other characteristics of agricultural importance. As the collections grew and the extraordinary diversity of maize in Mexico began to be revealed, the need of a taxonomic classification which would make some semblance of order out of the bewildering multiplicity of varieties became ap- parent. Botanical, genetic and cytological studies to supplement the agronomic investigations were begun and, to make the collections as nearly complete as possible, special efforts were made to obtain little-known varieties, of doubtful agronomic importance, from remote localities. Gradually it became possible to discern relationships between varieties and to group these into more or less well-defined natural races. And since relationships are im- plicit in any natural system of classification, a definite attempt has been made to determine the origins and relationships of the recog- nized races. What had begun as a strictly utilitarian venture of limited scope has evolved into a study of the evolution, in one geographical region, of America’s most important cultivated plant. One result has been that the corn breeders of Mexico now have a far more useful inventory than they originally sought, of the FOREWORD breeding material available in their country and can now ap- proach new breeding problems with some degree of confidence in their choice of stocks. The conclusions on origins and relationships presented in this monograph are not to be regarded as final. They represent no more than the best interpretations which the authors were able to make from their observations and data. Some have substantial evidence in their support and have already proved useful; others are necessarily still speculative and will require modification as new evidence from the maize of other countries is brought to bear upon the problem. Indeed one of the most useful purposes which this monograph could serve is to focus attention on the need for similar studies in other parts of America. Maize is the basic food plant in most of the Americas and its diversity, the product of thousands of years of evolution under domestication, is one of the great natural resources of this hemisphere. To lose any part of that diversity is not only to re- strict the opportunities for further improvement but also to increase the difficulties of coping with future climatic changes or with new diseases or insect pests. The modern corn breeder, therefore, has a responsibility not only to improve the maize in the country in which he works but also to recognize, to describe and to preserve for future use, the varieties and races which his own improved productions tend to replace and in some cases to extinguish. A Spanish edition of this monograph has been published earlier, under the auspices of the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture in cooperation with the Rockefeller Foundation. The two editions are alike in all essential details and in their conclusions and differ only slightly in the arrangement of descriptive material. The Bussey Institution of Harvard University, which has been con- cerned with studies of maize for almost half a century, has under- taken the publication of this English edition for two reasons: a member of its staff has participated in the research which it reports and the data and conclusions which it contains promise to be of some interest to English-speaking botanists, geneticists and plant breeders and of potential importance to future agricultural improvement in the United States. PAULC. MANGELSDORF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study is the product of the cooperative efforts of many individuals. Credit is especially due to the following Ingenieros Agrónomos of Mexico for help in collecting varieties and in collecting and summarizing the data on which this study is based: Ing. Reynaldo Luis Pineda, Ing. Raúl Miravete A., Ing. Gilberto Palacios de la Rosa, Ing. Atanasio Cuevas R., Ing. Raúl Palacios A., Ing. Miguel Monroy R., Ing. Félix Agramont C., Ing. Amador Terán T., Ing. Neftalí Bautista R., Ing. Humberto Rosado E., Ing. Pedro Montellano C., Ing. Rogelio Espinosa Ochoa, Ing. Carlos Aguirre S., Ing. José Martinez Beltrán, Ing. Humberto Cárdenas, Ing. Carlos Vargas S., Ing. Alberto San Vicente G., e Ing. Francisco López Cortez. Special credit is also due to Dr. Earlene Atchison who prepared the cytological material and made the chromosome knob counts of the different races; to Mr. James Pate for his help in obtaining and summarizing data on the morphological characters of the plants and external characters of the ears; to Dr. Lee Lenz for help with the condensation indices of the tassels; to Ing. Atanasio Cuevas R. for the data on the internode patterns; to Dr. C. C. Gilly for the use of his map identifying the geographical regions of Mexico; and to Dr. Isabel Kelly for her help in the collection of corn. In connection with the preparation of the manuscript the authors are indebted to Ing. Pedro Montellano C. for assistance in making the ear cross-section diagrams; to Mrs. Vivian Wellhausen for making the distribution maps, the pedigree diagrams and the charts for the internode patterns; to Mrs. Betty Roberts for typing the manuscript; to Ing. Prof. José Luis de la Loma for his assistance in translation and preparation of the Spanish version; and to Arthur Smith and Byron MacLellan for invaluable assistance in connection with the photography. The authors are particularly grateful to Dr. Dorothy Parker for her many hours of very exacting work

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