In the association study, variation in d8 was evaluated for association with flowering time and plant height in 92 maize inbred lines. Nine polymorphisms, including a MITE insertion in the promoter re- gion and a two–amino acid deletion adjacent to the SH2-like domain, a potentially key binding domain in this putative transcription factor, were found to associate with flowering time. The distribution of polymorphisms indicated that selection had occurred at this locus to produce earlier flowering maize.