Corn is a vegetable, and even the so-called fruit corn is a type of sweet corn. They are all starchy vegetables, similar to potatoes, and can replace a small amount of staple food.

The origin of corn is in Mexico and Peru in Latin America. Human cultivation of corn has a history of about seven thousand years, and it has been transformed from a wild state into a cultivated type for about four or five thousand years. The origin of corn is a controversial issue. Because the wild ancestor of corn has never been found.

Bahun’s report in 1954 revealed a little secret. Corn pollen fossils from 9,000 years ago were found in a core 70 meters below the ground in Mexico City (a layer judged to be about 80,000 years old). Also found were corn ear specimens from about 7,000 years ago. This corn ear is 3.5 cm long and 0.7 cm thick. The axis and kernel color are light brown. The kernels are about the size of millet kernels. The kernel rows are neat and the tooth sockets are deep. The two kernels are connected parallel to each other in two rows. There is a wide gap between parallel grains. Based on this discovery, it can be considered that the ancestor of corn is a kind of wild corn, and it can be concluded that there is a high possibility that corn originated in Latin America.

Corn originated from the American continent, and its origin is Mexico or Central America. After Columbus discovered the New World, he brought corn to Spain. With the development of the world's navigation industry, corn gradually spread to all parts of the world and became one of the most important food crops. Recently, some countries regard corn as a "national treasure". Corn is one of the most widely distributed crops in the world. It is cultivated in large quantities from 58 degrees north latitude to 35-40 degrees south latitude.

Columbus discovered corn in Cuba in 1492, and it was cultivated throughout North and South America. After bringing corn back to Spain in 1494, it gradually spread to all over the world. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, corn cultivation had reached more than ten provinces, such as Jilin, Zhejiang, Fujian, Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Anhui and other places. It has a history of about 460 years. Up to now, my country's corn planting area and total output are second only to the United States, ranking second in the world. Corn is widely distributed in my country, from Hainan Island at 18 degrees north latitude to the north of Heihe River in Heilongjiang Province at 53 degrees north latitude, from Taiwan and coastal provinces in the east to Xinjiang and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the west.