Traditional Italian maize varieties have been, according to historical, archaeological, botany, morphological, and genetic evidence, molded since the introduction of this exotic cereal crop from the Americas in the sixteenth century.
[1] The speciation and evolution of maize varieties in Italy, by means of man-made adaptive selection, maintained a broad genetic variability for about four centuries.
Most Italian agro-ecotypes of maize are from the Indurata and Indentata sections and their combinations, characterized by kernels with flint, semi-dent and dent consistency.
Classification, along the plant cropping and grain cooking characteristics, is summed in the following ear types; An early description of 12 maize varieties was published by P. Venino in 1916, followed by extensive studies by Tito Vezio Zapparoli between 1920 and 1943.
The agronomic, morphological and cytological characterization, and multi-variate analysis, of such and other accessions stored at the germplasm bank of the "Maize experimental station" in Bergamo, allowed the systematic classification of Italian traditional varieties.