Why does corn have hairs on it?

Moment of Um

American Public Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever peeled the leaves off of an ear of corn and noticed the white hairy-looking stuff tucked inside? What is that, anyway? We asked chef and cookbook author Kenji Lopez-Alt to help us find the answer.

Got an a-MAIZE-ing question? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll help find an answer that’s a cut above the rest!

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the brains behind, brains on, this is Moment of Um.
0:09.0	Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Anton, Celebrity Hair Stylist.
0:16.9	Um, um, um, um. I've styled the hair of many, many important people, presidents,
0:24.3	pop stars, even popes. I don't just trim hair. I'm a hair artist. You want a hot pink
0:32.4	mohawk with frosted tips? I got you. A sophisticated mullet with side-swept bangs. Easy. Double buns,
0:41.7	Princess Leia style. Consider it a double done. Okay, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.
0:48.7	I have a brand new, never seen before hairstyle that I literally just invented. It's called the corn poof. It's a little
0:57.8	white ponytail on the top of your head that sticks straight up, so innovative and so fresh. And get
1:05.0	this, my cornpoof hairstyle was inspired by actual corn. You know, that little white ponytail-like thing that pokes out from the top of an ear of corn when it still has its leaves.
1:17.3	And then when you peel back the leaves, you know, the husk of the corn, there's all these little white strands inside surrounding the corn cob.
1:26.0	It's just a beautiful, just perfect for my latest hairstyle.
1:32.3	But, uh, say, what is that hairy-looking stuff on the corn anyway?
1:38.5	Brooke wanted to know this too.
1:44.0	So those are called the corn silks.
1:46.5	Hey, everyone. I am Kenji Lopez-Alt, and I am a cookbook author and a children's book author.
1:51.6	If you were to very, very carefully open up a ear of corn, peel off the husk, and look at each one of those silks, you'll find that each one of those silks is actually attached to a single kernel of corn inside. So every kernel of corn has a hair that is attached to it
2:06.2	and goes to the outside. And in fact, those kernels of corn couldn't exist without those silks.
2:10.7	What those silks are is essentially they're a pathway for corn pollen to come down and
2:16.9	turn into a new corn kernel.
2:19.1	So corn, like other flowers, some of them will release their pollen,
2:22.3	and then that pollen will travel over to another ear of corn to fertilize it.
2:26.2	And the corn silks are essentially corn's way of catching pollen in the air.
	...

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