What Are the Different Types of Corn

Corn is corn, right? Not so fast! There are several different types of corn and not all of them are the kind of corn we eat.

Dent Corn

Dent corn gets its name because of the dent, or dimple, that forms on the top of each kernel when it starts drying out. It is commonly called “field corn” and is the most commonly grown corn in the United States. It's typically grown for industrial applications such as fuel, livestock feed and in thousands of other bio-based products like carpet, cosmetics and aspirin. Dent corn is used to make ethanol. The by-products of ethanol — distillers’ grains — can provide high-quality food for our livestock.

Although dent corn is not typically eaten by humans straight off the cob, it's processed to make other foods such as cooking oil, masa, tortilla chips, grits and more.

Dent corn is more commonly grown here than sweet corn, mostly because it's in higher demand. Only about one percent of the all the corn grown in the United States is sweet corn.

Sweet Corn

Sweet corn is the main kind of corn people eat. This is the type you'll find in the produce aisle of your grocery store.

If you’ve ever taken a bite out of an ear of field corn you’ll know pretty quickly it’s not the same as sweet corn. Field corn is much higher in starch and doesn’t have as much sugar to make it sweet like the other types. Sweet corn is harvested when the kernels are soft and flavorful. Field corn is harvested later in the season when the plant has dried, the leaves and stalk have turned brown, and the kernels are hard.

Fun Fact: Sweet corn kernels always grow in an even number of rows on the cob.

Popcorn

This is used — you guessed it — as a crunchy snack. Popcorn is similar to field corn. The seed is especially neat because different varieties can grow different colors of kernels.

Corn flour is made from ground, dried corn and is often found in corn tortillas and corn chips. (You can make your own corn flour using popcorn kernels!)

Flint Corn

Flint corn, which we know as Indian corn, is more common in Central and South America. There, they use flint corn similar to how we use field corn — as feed for livestock. It's not grown much in the United States, although it can be found in one top agritourism attraction!