'Appalachian Purple' Self-Feeding Corn

Zea mays subsp. mays

Origin: Andean and Hopi peoples, via South Carolina and Tennessee

Improvement status: Breeding population

Seeds per packet: ~80

Germination tested 08/2024: 98%

Life cycle: Annual

This corn comes to us from Kevin Bane of Philadelphia, Tennessee, and it is the result of a ten-year project to introduce this South American and Central American corn type to North America. We are very excited to be offering it through EFN!

The original cross was 'Peruvian Purple' x 'Hopi Blue'. This produced a beautiful corn, but its days to maturity were too long, taking 150 to 160 days to ripen. Kevin, in collaboration with a nearby neighbor, began crossing this original cross with 'Bloody Butcher' and many other corn varieties, selecting it for certain traits, and then backcrossing it with plants from the original cross.

Ten years of breeding has produced a corn population that is 70 to 80% dark purple at this point.

Additionally! It has the nitrogen-fixing roots of South American corn — or, more accurately, roots that exude a mucilage attractive to nitrogen-fixing bacteria — and some plants even have double root systems, allowing them to fix and take up even more nitrogen.

This corn is perfect for purple tortillas, purple cornbread, and the famous Chicha Morada drink of South America. Well done, Kevin!

And endless gratitude to the generations of Indigenous peoples of this hemisphere who developed corn over thousands of years and were the first people to recognize and develop the amazing trait of mucilaginous root exudates!