Originally published 2004, updated Aug 2009
URL: http://www.kingcorn.org/news/timeless/TasselEars.html

Tassel-Ears in Corn

R.L. (Bob) Nielsen
Agronomy Dept., Purdue Univ.
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2054
Email address: rnielsen at purdue.edu
 

Tassel-ear with both male
and female floral parts.
Click image for larger view.

eems like every year about this time someone walks into the Chat 'n Chew Cafe carrying an odd-looking tassel that is part tassel and part ear to show off to the guys over at the corner table.Much discussion always ensues over the causes of tassel-ears, but the usual consensus is that it falls into the general category of corny oddities and is rarely a yield-influencing factor.

A corn plant exhibits both male flowers and female flowers (a flowering habit called "monoecious" for you trivia fans.) Interestingly, both flowers are initially bisexual (aka "perfect"), but during the course of development the female components (gynoecia) of the male flowers and the male components (stamens) of the female flowers abort, resulting in tassel (male) and ear (female) development.

Once in a while, the upper flower that typically becomes a tassel instead forms a combination of male and female floral parts on the same reproductive structure. The physiological basis for the survival of the female floral parts on the tassel is likely hormonal, but the environmental "trigger" that alters the hormonal balance is not known.

This "tassel-ear" is an odd-looking affair and is found most commonly on tillers or "suckers" of a corn plant along the edges of a field or in otherwise thinly populated areas of a field. It is very uncommon to find tassel-ears that develop on the main stalk of a corn plant.

Without a protective husk covering, the kernels that develop on tassel-ears are at the mercy of weathering and exposed to hungry birds. Consequently, harvestable good quality grain from tassel-ears is a rarity.

Some folks lump the tassel-ear symptom into the same category as the malformed tassel symptom of the so-called "crazy top" disease. These two odd tassel symptoms are not related and, in fact, look totally different. The "crazy top" disease is caused by infection of young corn plants during ponding events by the soil-borne fungus Sclerophthora macrospora that eventually expresses itself by altering normal tassel development (and sometimes ear shoot development) into a mass of leaf tissue.

Click on an image to open a larger version. To close the popup window, click on the larger image.

Tassel-ears on tillers.

Tassel-ear on tiller vs.
normal ear on main stalk.

Tassel-ear from tiller, with dried
silks still visible.

Mass of leafy tissue in a
tassel of plant infected with
"Crazy top" disease.

Related References

Lipps, Pat and Dennis Mills. 2001. Crazy Top of Corn. Ohio State Univ. Extension publication AC-0034-01. [online] http://ohioline.osu.edu/ac-fact/0034.html [URL accessed 8/3/09].

Nielsen, R.L. (Bob). 2003. Tillers or “Suckers” in Corn: Good or Bad? Corny News Network, Purdue Univ. [online] http://www.kingcorn.org/news/articles.03/Tillers-0623.html. [URL accessed 8/3/09].

Thomison, Peter. 1995. Corn Growth and Development - Does Tillering Affect Hybrid Performance? Ohio State University Extension publication AGF-121-95 [online] http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0121.html [URL accessed 8/3/09].

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