The Races of maize iv: tentative grouping of 219 Latin American races

Abstract

Using principal component and cluster analyses of 20 ear characters for 219 Latin American races and subraces of maize, 14 groups of races are delimited. The relationships among these groups are indicated, and some subdivisions of the 14 racial groups are described. Only two of the 14 groups of races have been widely used in breeding; several groups have only been slightly studied and a number of their component races verge upon extinction. There is a very small, but perhaps highly significant, amount of overlap between the groups to which the Mexican and indigenous South American races belong. © 1977 The New York Botanical Garden.