Most traditional foods are strictly linked to specific maize kernel types as well as grinding and cooking techniques. Cooked or toasted grains, and puddings of partially ripe grains, are prepared with mostly floury kernel varieties;
Maize is believed to have crossed the Isthmus of Panama around 5,000 years BCE reaching Colombia and later the Ecuadorian coast. Since then, domestication and evolution of native varieties followed this pattern;
adaptation to the low and middle highlands of the Eastern Andes,
creation of the primitive races and extension of the adaptation area,
Kernels of maize varieties eaten in Ecuador are the outcome of the evolution of varieties of the following morphological groups described by Alfred Sturtevant;
Zea mays everta - popcorn, known locally as canguiles,
Zea mays amylosaccharata - sweet corn, known locally as chullpi,
Zea mays indurada - dark maize, known locally as maíz morocho,
Zea mays amylacea - soft maize, known locally as maíz suave.
During 1962 and 1963 Aureliano Brandolini collected 458 seed samples of the Ecuadorian varieties within the equatorial zone, between 2° North and -6° South.[2] The comparative study of the behavior of these accessions resulted in the identification of racial complexes corresponding to those described earlier by D.H. Timothy and collaborators.[3] A few races, morocho, harinoso dentado, montaña, and candela, were not included in the sampled varieties, while a few new races were described, such as colorado puntiagudo, harinoso cónico, and huaco sara, as well as tunicata, a variety cropped in Bolívar Province.
The tripsacoid racesofeverta, indentata, and indurata, sections were separated from the primitive ones of the amilacea, amylosaccharata,
indurata, and tunicata sections, and from maize imported or derived in historical times from the amylacea and indurata sections.
This study underlined that:
The Canguiles group from the Andean highlands is not sensitive to photoperiod change, as well as the Lima varieties of possible recent introduction. These varieties apparently have gametophytic isolation characteristics.
The varieties of lowland tropical origin are luxuriant, reaching over 5.5 meters of height, tassel excluded. By comparison, Canguiles and the flint kernel maize from the highlands sierra, Morocho, Patillo, Perlilla, and Tusilla, have a plant size lower than 2.0 meters.
The tassel size varies greatly and is not linked to the environment; the shortest tassel is that of the tropical Dentado, the largest, 55 cm, is that of the sierra Uchima.
Studies enabled the identification of the following racial complexes and races:[4][5]
Zea mays everta
a. formas primitivas (primitive forms)
Canguil
b. formas derivadas (derived forms)
Canguil grueso
Zea mays indurata
a. formas primitivas
Clavito
Enano gigante
Morocho 8 hileras
Pira
b. formas derivadas
Andanqui
Morocho Colorado
Uchima
Yungueño
c. formas de reciente introducción (recently introduced forms)
Cubano
Zea mays indentata
Dentado
Sintético
Zea mays indurata
a. grano blanco (white kernel)
Morocho (Sabanero)
Perlilla
Tusilla
b. Grano colorado y semivítreo (Reddish and semi-flint kernel)
Kcello / Nal Tel
Patillo
Zea mays amylacea
a. grano blanco
Harinoso 8 hileras
b. grano amarillo (yellow kernel)
Mishca
c. grano rojo (red kernel)
Harinoso cónico
Harinoso puntiagudo
Racimo de uva
Zea mays amylosaccharata
Chullpi
Zea mays tunicata
Huaco
Important primitive, derived or imported traditional varieties still cropped are:
^Historia del reino de Quito 1789. Tomo I, Parte I, Libro 2, $ 7, par. 5: Maíz o sara
^Elementos para la programación agropecuaria del Ecuador. Desarrollo de los cereales: Maíz, Aureliano Brandolini, 1963 - American status organization, Rome – Washington D.C.
^Races of maize in Ecuador, Timothy D. H., Hatheway W. H., Grant U. J., Torregrosa M., Varela A. D., Sarria V. D. Nat. Acad. Sci. - Nat. Res. Council, Washington D.C. Publ. N. 975, 1963
^Maize evolution and differentiation, Brandolini A., G. Avila, p108, CRF Press, Bergamo, 2004.
^Recursos fitogenéticos de América Latina, Brandolini A., G.V. Brandolini, p242, CRF Press, Bergamo, 2005.
