The theory that “corn can’t reproduce on its own, so aliens must have made it” sparked a thread on 5ch’s Science News+ board about the history of crop breeding. According to the article, corn’s actual ancestor is a closely related wild plant called “teosinte,” and starting around 7000–9000 BC, humans repeatedly selected individuals with larger kernels, eventually shaping it into the corn we know today. In response, commenters piled on with other examples of “plants that spread without producing seeds,” citing bananas, bread wheat, and Japanese narcissus.
August 18, 2026
Izumi Nakagawa
Developed by aliens? The mystery of a plant that can’t reproduce on its own
Source: friday.kodansha.co.jp / Original article here
People who say this stuff clearly don't know about teosinte.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The pre-mutation parent, and the birth of a new mutant creature
Once this offspring has mutated so much that it's considered a different thing from the parent,
it's no longer called an offspring — it's the birth of a new species (the emergence of a starting point) → that's the argument for 'chicken first'
The same thing happens when humans surpass humanity and become a new species
and a species distinct from Homo sapiens is born
https://inri.client.jp/hexagon/floorB1F_hss/b1fha400.html
The pre-mutation parent, and the birth of a new mutant creature
Once this offspring has mutated so much that it's considered a different thing from the parent,
it's no longer called an offspring — it's the birth of a new species (the emergence of a starting point) → that's the argument for 'chicken first'
The same thing happens when humans surpass humanity and become a new species
and a species distinct from Homo sapiens is born
https://inri.client.jp/hexagon/floorB1F_hss/b1fha400.html
>>3
Isn't the mutation actually happening at the point of fertilization?
That's the argument for 'egg first.'
Well, if you can't tell at the egg stage, then you could also say it's not the chicken but the chick that comes first.
Isn't the mutation actually happening at the point of fertilization?
That's the argument for 'egg first.'
Well, if you can't tell at the egg stage, then you could also say it's not the chicken but the chick that comes first.
Bananas don't produce seeds either, so you have to propagate them by dividing the plant. Actually, they're easy to peel, and the unpeeled part conveniently doubles as a handle.
>>4
The reality is more low-key than that
Once a banana plant has fruited, that same stalk won't fruit again, so you cut it partway down and later pull it out. Then a new shoot sprouts up nearby.
The reality is more low-key than that
Once a banana plant has fruited, that same stalk won't fruit again, so you cut it partway down and later pull it out. Then a new shoot sprouts up nearby.
Corn Grandma made it. Though she got killed for it.
>>1 reminded me — about 20 years ago I saw something called 'Retasai' (a lettuce-napa cabbage hybrid) at a rural roadside station and bought it to try, but it was terrible. Haven't seen it since — did it just disappear?
>>6
Lettuce is in the daisy family (Asteraceae) and napa cabbage is in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), so I don't think they can actually cross-breed.
Lettuce is in the daisy family (Asteraceae) and napa cabbage is in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), so I don't think they can actually cross-breed.
That's basically how all cultivated varieties work
Humans grow them, and only the ones with traits convenient for humans get selected and survive.
Humans grow them, and only the ones with traits convenient for humans get selected and survive.
>>1
Japanese narcissus doesn't produce seeds either, so it only spreads by bulb division
It's a sterile triploid variety formed when a normal diploid crossed with a mutant tetraploid.
Japanese narcissus doesn't produce seeds either, so it only spreads by bulb division
It's a sterile triploid variety formed when a normal diploid crossed with a mutant tetraploid.
The crew of the crashed craft were 120cm tall
It takes 100,000 years for a 50cm height mutation from 170cm to occur
So the crew of that craft must be humans from 100,000 years in the future
It takes 100,000 years for a 50cm height mutation from 170cm to occur
So the crew of that craft must be humans from 100,000 years in the future
Primitive corn was probably like a hard little baby corn, right?
How did it turn into this?
How did it turn into this?
That's because you're assuming it's meant for humans to eat
Bears, boars, and birds would probably just tear it apart and scatter it
Bears, boars, and birds would probably just tear it apart and scatter it
>>Corn, once rumored to have "come from outer space," has now — thanks to recent DNA research — been traced back to a wild ancestral grass called "teosinte," a group of closely related wild plants in the grass family.
>>Corn began to be improved by humans around 7000 to 9000 BC. The earliest corn had very small kernels, but by repeatedly selecting and replanting individuals with larger kernels over thousands of years, it's said to have become the corn we know today.
>>"Nightshade family plants contain toxins, but the tomatoes and eggplants we eat today use varieties with low toxin levels in the edible parts. That's because low-toxin strains were selectively bred. That's how humans have improved plants."
>>Corn began to be improved by humans around 7000 to 9000 BC. The earliest corn had very small kernels, but by repeatedly selecting and replanting individuals with larger kernels over thousands of years, it's said to have become the corn we know today.
>>"Nightshade family plants contain toxins, but the tomatoes and eggplants we eat today use varieties with low toxin levels in the edible parts. That's because low-toxin strains were selectively bred. That's how humans have improved plants."
>>16 will probably get explained too once science advances further
>>Napa cabbage × cabbage = 'Hakuran'
>>Crops aren't just the product of human selection. New species can also arise through natural crossbreeding. Take bread wheat, the raw material for bread, for example.
>>"Bread wheat came about when Tausch's goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii, which looks like an ordinary grass) naturally crossed with a cultivated variety close to durum wheat — the kind used in pasta — likely growing in the same field. Because it turned out to be so useful to humans, it came to be cultivated all over the world."
>>Crops aren't just the product of human selection. New species can also arise through natural crossbreeding. Take bread wheat, the raw material for bread, for example.
>>"Bread wheat came about when Tausch's goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii, which looks like an ordinary grass) naturally crossed with a cultivated variety close to durum wheat — the kind used in pasta — likely growing in the same field. Because it turned out to be so useful to humans, it came to be cultivated all over the world."
>>18 is different from the animals below, so wouldn't growing each plant under conditions suited to it, in an artificial environment, for about 3 generations quickly produce a distinct new individual?
[Soviet Domestication Experiment] What happens if you keep breeding only the docile individuals? (3/3)
Published 2025.01.25 00:00:00 SATURDAY
https://nazology.kusuguru.co.jp/archives/169150/3
[Soviet Domestication Experiment] What happens if you keep breeding only the docile individuals? (3/3)
Published 2025.01.25 00:00:00 SATURDAY
https://nazology.kusuguru.co.jp/archives/169150/3
The primitive form just happened to survive, that's all
Wheat originally was a variety whose seeds shattered and fell off easily. That was a problem at harvest time since the grain would just drop off, so barley and other grains ended up as the main cultivated crops instead.
But then a mutant variety appeared whose seeds didn't shatter, and that's what spread to become what we grow today.
If that mutation had never happened, we'd be eating rolled barley or porridge instead of bread.
But then a mutant variety appeared whose seeds didn't shatter, and that's what spread to become what we grow today.
If that mutation had never happened, we'd be eating rolled barley or porridge instead of bread.
>>22
That's a whole different level from the corn story
That's a whole different level from the corn story
>>22
The stuff used to finish off some phony magic ritual, huh?
The stuff used to finish off some phony magic ritual, huh?
From the perspective of these improved plants, as long as there are animals using them, they keep winning the survival race — humans are actually just being used as part of the plants' survival strategy.
The plants are the superior ones here, the real bosses
Nom nom, food'z tasty (written in deliberately cutesy, baby-talk style)
The plants are the superior ones here, the real bosses
Nom nom, food'z tasty (written in deliberately cutesy, baby-talk style)
There's so many grass-family (Poaceae) plants that you start going 'oh, this is a grass too?'
Avocados were on the verge of extinction
The elephants that used to swallow those huge seeds went extinct, cutting off their means of reproducing
These days, thanks to humans, they've multiplied like crazy
The elephants that used to swallow those huge seeds went extinct, cutting off their means of reproducing
These days, thanks to humans, they've multiplied like crazy
>>34
Not elephants. It was giant ground sloths and armadillos
Not elephants. It was giant ground sloths and armadillos
*Note: this is an AI-generated answer, so double-check the details
The megafauna (giant animals) that swallowed avocados' huge seeds whole and carried them far away, sustaining the species, went extinct roughly 13,000 years ago. Notable examples include giant ground sloths (Megatherium), giant armadillos (Glyptodon), and gomphotheres (ancient elephant relatives).
The megafauna (giant animals) that swallowed avocados' huge seeds whole and carried them far away, sustaining the species, went extinct roughly 13,000 years ago. Notable examples include giant ground sloths (Megatherium), giant armadillos (Glyptodon), and gomphotheres (ancient elephant relatives).
>>37
Elephants come in third place lol
Elephants come in third place lol
Peanuts are weird too (literally 'Nanjing beans' in Japanese)
This is the first I've heard of the crackpot theory that aliens brought corn — is this just the writer's own delusion?
Can't reproduce on your own either — did aliens make you guys too?
Corn becomes popcorn, rice becomes puffed rice snacks
Since they're both grasses, even the snacks turn out similar
Since they're both grasses, even the snacks turn out similar
>>20
We can't pollinate with stamens and pistils
so I guess all we can do is fuse with ourselves solo…
We can't pollinate with stamens and pistils
so I guess all we can do is fuse with ourselves solo…
Come to think of it, you don't see seedless watermelon much these days
Guess we're not very grateful for it, huh
Guess we're not very grateful for it, huh
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “Made by Aliens!? The Mystery of Corn That Can’t Reproduce on Its Own, and the New Variety Born in ’25 That Could Save Us From a Food Crisis.”
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