Zea

Zea is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family, Poaceae, order Poales, subfamily Panicoideae, comprising five accepted species. The best known species is Zea mays, variously called maize, corn or Indian corn, one of the most important crops for human societies across much of the world; the four wild species are commonly known as teosintes and are native to Mesoamerica, the same region where maize was originally domesticated. The genus was formally established by Carl Linnaeus, with Zea mays as its type species.