BOTANICAL MUSEUM LEAFLETS 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
Campripnce, Massacuusetrs, Aprit 30, 1970 VoL. 22, No. 9 
TEOSINTE INTROGRESSION IN THE 
MAIZE OF THE NOBOGAME VALLEY 
BY 
H. Garrison WILKES 
Around Nobogame grows a plant called maizillo, or maizmillo. 
It is more slender than the ordinary corn-plant and the ears are 
very small. It growsamong the corn and has to be weeded out, 
as itinjures the good plants. However, several Mexicans assured 
me that, when cultivated, the ears develop. After three years 
they grow considerably larger and may be used as food. A man 
in Cerro Prieto raises this kind only: others mix it with the 
ordinary corn. I was told that people from the Hot Country 
came to gather it, each taking away about one almud to mix 
with their seed corn. The combination is said to give splendid 
results in fertile soil. 
Lumunottz, Unknown Mexico 
1902 
The Nobogame Valley is an isolated valley in the 
Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico, and the description 
by Lumholtz written over fifty years ago is an accurate 
account of present day hybridization of teosinte with 
maize. 
This valley, inhabited by Tarahumare Indians and 
Mexicans, is approximately eight miles north of the old 
mining town of Guadalupe y Calvo in the southwestern 
corner of the state of Chihuahua. Most of the valley 
floor is given over to the cultivation of maize, beans and 
squash or grazed, but teosinte does occur and is often 
abundant along the margins of maize fields or in the 
willow thickets bordering the streams. The distribution 
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