WHY DOES AN EAR OF CORN HAVE SILK?

Corn is without a doubt one of man's most valuable agricultural crops. If you grow your own corn, you may have noticed that each ear is wrapped in a neat sheath of leaves and topped with a shiny, silken ponytail. The silk is more than a decoration--it plays an important part in the development of each kernel.

Naturally, each plant does its best to make sure that there will be seeds for future generations. In the case of corn, the seeds are golden kernels packed in neat, tight rows around each ear. Before the kernels develop into seeds, however, they must be fertilized by pollen grains that grow in  grow in the feathery tassel at the top of the plant.

During the growing season, the corn plant shoots up tall and straight on its jointed stalk. Each joint sprouts a long, swordlike leaf that curves gracefully out from the stem and dangles downward at the tip. The base of the leaf wraps around the tough cornstalk, enclosing it in a shiny green sheath.

The top of the stalk sports a feathery tassel. It may be green, yellow, red or even a handsome purple, but most tassels are of a pinkish hue. The perky tassel is made up of hundreds of tiny flowers, and when the time is right the flowers will produce pollen.

    Meanwhile, small ears of soon-to-be corn are sprouting down on the cornstalk. There may be one or as many as eight of the stubby ears, depending on the type of

corn. Each ear is tenderly wrapped in its own leafy husk and tucked into the base of a leaf. The corncob inside the husk is crowded with rows of young green kernels, and each kernel grows a long silken thread.     These threads poke out of the husk at the top and form a silken ponytail.

    With the pollen grains up in the tossing tassels and the young kernels protected in their husks, the job of getting the two together is awesome. And this is where the silk gets into the act. When the pollen is ripe, the midsummer breezes blow the pollen grains throughout the entire cornfield. As a pollen grain lands on a thread of silk, it begins to grow a tiny tube down the strand to the kernel. Down through this tube moves a male cell that unites with an egg cell in the infant kernel. The result is a grain of golden corn.

    Hundreds of years ago the corn plants' weedy ancestors had little trouble scattering their seeds to grow new plants. Modern corn, however, has been improved greatly, and each ear produces a great number of seeds. If an ear falls to the ground, the seeds may sprout, but more than likely their closely tangled roots soon strangle each other. Instead, the seeds must be separated from the cobs and planted by hand. Judging by the amount of corn grown and its delicious quality, however, the effort has certainly been worthwhile.