I read from embryophyte to emergency brake.

Here's a very long timelapse of corn!

https://youtu.be/9nQ6d3A2cTs?si=P9toEcoxabCfGGH8

I asked Kevin Stroud of "The History of English Podcast" about the change of "s" to "e" in words like "emerald" and this is what he sent me (thanks Kevin!):

With regard to your question, the source of the change was Late Latin. It appears that the people who spoke Late Latin (including many of the Vulgar Latin dialects that evolved into the Romance languages) had a problem pronouncing the 's' sound at the beginning of a word. To compensate for that problem, they often preceded the 's' sound with a slight 'e' sound. Eventually, the 's' sound disappeared i ...