Flint Corn 'Japonica Striped' Seeds (Certified Organic)

The World’s Most Beautiful Corn Plant! Invite this vibrant ornamental flint corn into your edible landscape design and you won’t regret it. Plants reach 6 feet in height; foliage develops a brilliant, multi-colored striping in green, white, pink and yellow. Some stalks will be mostly all green; others will be striped with all four colors. It has wine-colored tassels and crimson-black kernels, adding a tropical touch to borders or container plantings. The sturdy stalks make a fantastic trellis for climbing ornamentals like sweet pea. When dried, the kernels grind into a tasty meal. This variety was bred in Japan and was introduced to America in the 1870s. During this period, called the Meiji period, corn was just becoming a popular staple in the Japanese diet, despite the fact that the crop had been introduced to the country centuries prior. Native American flint corn was first brought to Japan by the Portuguese in the 1500s; at the time, flint corn was considered primarily a fodder crop for livestock. During the Edo period in Japan (1603-1867), officials of the centralized government (who were mostly vegetarian due to religious reasons) discouraged the consumption of meat and the need for corn to feed livestock plummeted, relegating the newly introduced corn crop to relative obscurity. With the Meiji period (1868-1912), meat was reintroduced to the Japanese diet, and the need for corn as fodder rose. Along the way, it was discovered that corn could be a tasty crop for humans as well. Striped Japonica was developed during this resurgence of interest in corn in Japan. Please enjoy this stunning treasure from historic Japan!

Michigan Seeds and Plants grown on our farm, Renegade Acres, in Howell, MI!

Certified Organic by Oregon Tilth.