Zea is a taxonomic genus of grasses that includes maize and its wild relatives, commonly called teosinte. Its native distribution is in Mexico and Central America; widespread cultivated and introduced populations should be distinguished from that native range.[ref]
https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn%3Alsid%3Aipni.org%3Anames%3A19280-1. Kew taxonomic record, accepted genus and native range
The plants exhibit monoecy: male and female flowers occur on the same plant, in separate inflorescences. The male inflorescence is terminal, while the female inflorescences are borne in leaf axils. In maize, the conspicuous male structure is the tassel, and the female structure develops into the ear. Thus an ear and a tassel are different reproductive structures of one plant.[ref]
Comparing maize with teosinte makes Zea a powerful system for studying domestication. Differences in branching can arise through changes in gene regulation: work on the teosinte branched1 gene connects the compact architecture of cultivated maize with altered control of shoot development.[ref]
The evolution of apical dominance in maize by John Doebley and others. Abstract, branching phenotype and tb1 expression
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