Centli Guamare (Guamajuato 31) was the first to enter the seed stewardship program. This centli (Zea mays) is a landrace variety and a sub-race of Cónico called Elote Cónico, which is considered to be Prehistoric Mestizo. This means that they “are at least ancient enough to have now reached a rather high degree of genetic stability”. […] “They have been selected for purple aleurone color, cherry pericarp color or both. [This] selection for color has tended to keep the varieties pure for floury endosperm” (Hernandez, et al., 1952).

One goal of the breeding process is to strike a balance between the purple, white, purple and white speckled, and maroon kernels to produce lavender-colored masa.

This seed was collected in Guanajuato, Mexico in November of 1983 and donated to the US National Plant Germplasm System, which is part of the Germplasm Resource Information Network (GRIN). This germplasm is still maintained in the North Central Regional Plant Induction Station (PI 483517). It was brought to the program for historical, cultural and anthropological research.

Centli Guamare was included in the USDA SARE Research Project Titled “Ancestral Mexica Farming: A Comparative Yield Analysis from the 1500s” by Pantaleon Florez, Ashley Aranda, and Paola Ramírez (FNC19-1161). View the report, photo journal, and farmer ethnographies here.