Petalless Flowers of the Member of the Grass Family

Corn Silks Exposed and Waiting for Pollen to Fertilize the Ear of Corn

Tassels Heavy with Pollen

Delicate and silky but when magnified, the silks look anything but silky

 I have a total of six stalks of corn growing in the garden this year.  I know that hand-pollinating is a must for a crop this small because there's just not enough pollen floating down from the tassels to find the silks which lead to the corn kernels.

In searching for instructions to hand-pollinate, I learned a few facts about corn which I did not know.

First, corn is a member of the plant family Gramineae which has petalless flowers borne in spikelets, and fruit in the form of seedlike grain.  

Second, corn is a graass as is rice, wheat, barley, millet, oats, sugar cane, sorghum, rye and bamboo.