Stephen Smith

Guatemala

Many of the landraces here in Guatemala are highland races, with only a handful being lowland or somewhat lowland. Guatemala, as postulated by maize gurus Mangelsdorf and Cameron, is considered a second center of origin of cultivated maize varieties. This does indeed make sense, as Guatemala would have had maize come in before South America with its position in Central America, and due to teosinte and Tripsacum also growing in Guatemala. This diversity of maize originated from introductions of South American corn followed by hybridization with mainly Tripsacum but also teosinte. Zea mays ssp. huehuetenangensis is found in Guatemala as a very rare and almost teosinte, but it was likely once more common than today. A center of convergence also makes sense with other maize entering the area and becoming adapted to the areas where it was forced to grow and then hybridization with wild ancestors added to them. Many hybrid races arose from this, especially the crossing of the primitive popcorns to other races. As with other countries unlike Mexico, prehistoric ears of maize in Guatemala are rare and only a couple have been found. It's hard to trace the history back with a lack of archaeological evidence.