Historians tell us that Christopher Columbus brought maize (Zea mays) grains back to the Spanish court, originating from the Greater Antilles in the Caribean, and thus maize was grown in Spain from 1493. From there, maize spread to the rest of the world during the early 16th century.

I do not know when maize was brought to Mallorca, but it must have been a few hundred years ago, too. Maize is not a very important crop here on the Balearic Isles, but it is being grown here and there, mainly for animal feed.

Some people claim that Christopher Columbus (Cristóbal Colón) originaly hailed from Mallorca, in fact from my Mallorcan home town of Felanitx, but I shall keep that snippet for a separate blog entry. I suppose you would like to know about that story, wouldn’t you?

The photo (top) was taken near Muro, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: June 27th, 2009. The time was 13:10:35. The photo (bottom) was taken from the Internet, courtesy of allfonzz/Flickr. Many thanks.