Nature by itself and man working with it have produced many types of corn. Corn is generally classed as to kernel endosperm characteristics. Endosperm refers to a seed's nutritive tissue, surrounding and absorbed by the embryo. The six most common corn types include flint, flour, dent, pop, waxy, and sweet. A seventh is called pod or tunicate corn, which may have endosperms like the other six.
Pod corns differ from the others in that each individual kernel Is enclosed in a glume or husk.
Popcorns are basically small-kerneled flint types. Waxy corn carries a gene which results In the production of 100 percent amylopectin, i.e., starchy pectin. Sweet Corn Standard sweet corn at the immature, milky stage contains about 10 percent sucrose, while field corn in the same stage has about 4 percent. After harvest or if left on the stalk too long, sucrose in standard sweet corn is rapidly converted to starch. Sweet corn kernels often have a wrinkled, glassy appearance resulting from a sugary gene which retards the normal conversion of sugar to starch during endosperm development.