Stories by Paul C. Mangelsdorf

Modern corn, the author argues, had not one ancestor but two: it is derived from a cross between a primitive corn and a perennial form of the wild grass teosinte. Breeding experiments support the theory

The grass that bears our daily bread is synonymous with European civilization. What is the basis of its usefulness, and what is the origin of modern wheat?

Vigorous new crosses of the ancient cultivated plant have revolutionized the agriculture of the Corn Belt. An account of their development and its consequences

The wild ancestor of the most important plant in America is lost in antiquity. Once it was thought to be the grass teosinte; now the evidence points to a primitive pop corn