Most plants are coated with a complex mixture of lipids referred to as cuticular waxes that serve a variety of roles in plant growth and development including protection from desiccation, UV radiation, and pathogens. These lipids are composed of very long chain fatty acids (VLCFAs) and VLCFA-derivatives such as alcohols, aldehydes, alkanes, ketones, and esters. VLCFAs are the products of an ER-localized fatty acyl-CoA elongase, which utilizes C₁₈-fatty acyl-CoA as the initial substrate and elongates it with carbon derived from malonyl-CoA to chain lengths of up to 34 carbons. In an effort to better understand the biosynthesis and roles of VLCFA-derived lipids, large-scale mutagenesis experiments were performed to identify maize mutants that alter the accumulation of cuticular waxes. The over 180 recovered mutants define over 25 loci necessary for the normal accumulation of cuticular waxes. The chemical phenotypes of these mutants and molecular analyses of the affected genes are providing important clues about the structure of the complex pathways by which VLCFAs and cuticular waxes are biosynthesized and the roles of these pathways in plant growth and development. In particular, analyses of these mutants have established that β-ketoacyl reductase activity is required for normal maize development, and suggest that VLCFAs and/or their derivatives have an essential role.