branching and tillering

just a couple of photos to illustrate branching and tillering...the northern tepehuan teosinte in the top photo looks sort of like a bunch grass at the moment with multiple stems coming out of the ground at the base...this will change as the plant grows and the branches come up off the ground to , eventually, thicken and develop ears of seed...the zea diplopoerennis in the second photo is tillering...the rhyzomes the plant puts out break the surface close to the parent plant...as the season progresses more will radiate out in a circular pattern and lay out across the soil developing support roots at the nodes along the stem...just a couple of plant strategies for anyone ( besides me ) who is interested ) http://gardenengineer.blogspot.com/2011/09/ears-ii.html here's a post with a fair photo of what the northern tepehuan branches look like as the plant growes