What is maize related to?

Maize is a grain — specifically a grass — within the Family Poaceae, which also includes other economically important grasses such as wheat, oats, sorghum, and rye. Like all grasses, it is an angiosperm: a flowering plant.

Within the family Poaceae, the genus Zea includes maize and its early ancestor teosinte. Zea mays — the only domesticated species in this genus — is what we know as maize (see What is domestication?).