Who discovered corn?

Corn was first grown by Native Americans of the Southwest and it was used a food as well as a religious object. Eastern tribes also used corn as a food. The wonderful thing about corn is that it can be used in many ways and the seeds can be saved for the next year planting (except for modern-day hybrid corn). The Spanish explorers took corn back to Europe with them, but it wasn't grown until much later.

Corn (maize) wasn't really "discovered" so much as developed by the native peoples of northern Mexico, possibly as much as 12,000 years ago. It's unclear exactly which plants they started with in the development process, but one of them may have been teosinte, a tall native grass with its seeds where the tassels are on modern corn plants.