Skip Navigation
Sign In
  • Home
  • Search
    • Search Collections
    • Map Search
  • Chicago Botanic Garden
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Denver Botanic Gardens
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Desert Botanical Garden
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • NY Botanical Garden
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Sitemap

Zea luxurians

Zea luxurians (Durieu & Asch.) Bird  
Family: Poaceae
Guatemalan Teosinte, more...teosinte, Florida Teosinte, Guatemala Teosinte
[Euchlaena mexicana var. luxurians (Durieu & Asch.) Haines, moreZea mays subsp. luxurians (Durieu & Asch.) H.H. Iltis, Zea mexicana subsp. luxurians (Durieu & Asch.) Greb.]
Zea luxurians image
Tropicos.org Copyright (c) Missouri Botanical Garden © MBG
  • FNA
  • Resources
Hugh H. Iltis. Flora of North America

Plants annual. Culms 1-3(4) m tall, 1-4 cm thick, unbranched in dense stands, abundantly branched in open areas. Blades 20-80 cm long, 3-8 cm wide, glabrous. Pistillate inflorescences 1-many per node, usually in dense, sheathed, axillary clusters; peduncles usually (0)1-8 cm, slender and not exceeding the leaf sheaths, occasionally 1(2) peduncles as long as 23 cm and exceeding the leaf sheaths; pistillate rames distichous, 6-9 cm, subtended by a sheath, with 5-9 solitary spikelets; fruitcases trapezoidal in side view, 7-11.5 mm on the long side, 3.7-6.5 mm on the short side, 3-5 mm in diameter. Caryopses concealed. Terminal staminate panicles 12-24 cm, with (4)10-28 stiffly ascending branches; branches 7-16(21) cm, internodes 3-6 mm; pedicels 3-5 mm; spikelets 4.6-12 mm, densely imbricate; lower glumes flat dorsally, stiff, not translucent, margins tightly enclosing the upper glumes, (9)12-20(28)-veined, the 2 sublateral veins prominent, keeled, ciliate, narrowly winged distally. 2n = 20.

Zea luxurians is endemic to Central America, growing from Guatemala to Honduras, at elevations of 600-1200 m, and may extend into Oaxaca, Mexico. It was frequently grown for forage about a century ago, and is still sometimes grown for this purpose in the southern United States. It hardly ever tillers in the wild, but forms as many as 50 tillers in favorable agricultural settings and longer day lengths than in its native range. Although it can hybridize with Z. mays subsp. mays, Z. luxurians rarely does so in the wild.

Zea luxurians
Open Interactive Map
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
University of Florida Herbarium
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
University of Florida Herbarium
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
Zea luxurians image
Click to Display
13 Total Media
Institute for Museum and Library Services KU BI Logo Logo for the Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [MG-70-19-0057-19].

EcoFlora is part of the SEINet Portal Network. Learn more here.

Powered by Symbiota.