Ear shoots often absent, culm may be distorted or cracked; tassel branches erect, fastigiate (bundled), with branch peduncles fused to the base. ba2 plants often have tillers and sometimes develop an ear at the soil surface; tb2 is epistatic to ba2 (Hurkman and Tracy 2002). Genetic 2005 2 coordinates determined from these recombination and map data: (ba2 -0- ts1); see MaizeGDB ID:831903. This gene was originally curated in MaizeGDB Database and the map position was displayed on the maize bins map if feasible.