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| Most researchers pinpoint the Andes mountains as the center of origin for the tomato, and many wild relatives still grow there. Called the tomatl by South Americans, there are many varieties, found in both wild and cultivated forms. The first domesticated tomato plants bore small fruits, about the size of cherry tomatoes. The crop spread across South America, into Central America, and from there was introduced into Spain by Columbus - although once in Europe they were grown almost exclusively for medicinal purposes. As a relative of the poisonous mandrake plant, the tomato was also considered poisonous. The fruit gained acceptance as a foodstuff slowly; as late as 1900, George Washington Carver, the famous black educator and agricultural researcher, was giving demonstrations in which he would eat a tomato in an effort to prove that it was safe, and get his audience to make vitamin-laden tomatoes a regular part of their diet. |
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Many important crops are found in the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family. Relatives of the tomato include the potato, pepper, eggplant, tobacco, and petunia. The tomato plant is perennial, but is cultivated as an annual. The plant is covered with glandular hairs which emit a strong aroma when bruised. The plant likes high temperatures during the day, to promote flower production, and cool temperature at night, to promote fruit set. The hundreds of tomato cultivars generally fall into one of two categories: determinate or indeterminate. Determinate plants are usually shorter and more bush-like, and finish their vegetative growth before setting out flowers. At a certain point in the season the terminal buds will form flowers instead of foliage. The plants will then bear most of their fruit during a two to four week period, after which little additional fruit will be produced. Indeterminate plants continue vegetative growth, along with flower production throughout the season. They produce vines which will grow indefinitely under the proper climatic conditions because the terminal bud remains vegetative while flowers are produced from lateral buds. Indeterminate tomatoes continue to grow all season long, and are considered to have a "vine" manner of growth rather than "bushy" manner. They will also produce fruit throughout the season, as long as environmental conditions are favorable. |
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In a March 12, 1997 New York Times article headlined "Personal Health," Jane E. Brody reported that tomatoes contain an abundance of lycopene, a formidable cancer fighting chemical compound. The article stated that a study at Harvard Medical School found that consuming tomatoes, tomato sauce or pizza more than twice a week reduced risk of prostate cancer by as much as a third. The redder the tomato the more lycopene in it. The study also found that eating a small amount of fat helped improve the body's absorption of lycopene. In other words, pizza, with its cheese or olive oil (both of which are fats) could be considered a cancer preventative. |
| For horticulturists, the edible, sweet, fleshy, ripened ovary of a seed-bearing plant is called the "fruit." However, in 1893, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the tomato is a "vegetable." A group of growers had brought suit to declare the tomato a vegetable in order to protect crop prices. Since fruits were not subject to import taxes, foreign countries could flood the market with low-priced bananas and pineapples, but, after the Supreme Court decision, not tomatoes. One of the most well-known tomatoes is the Flavr Savr variety - a tomato whose fruit is genetically engineered to stay firm longer after ripening, and thus may remain on the vine longer to ripen to full flavor. While most tomato varieties must be harvested while they are green and firm to avoid being crushed on the way to market, Flavr Savr stays firm even when it's turned from green to red. The FDA declared the tomato to be as safe for human consumption as tomatoes bred by conventional means - the first time the agency had evaluated a whole food produced by biotechnology. There are many wild species of tomato that grow in the Andes which are being investigated as the source for new genes. These genes will be used to confer traits such as disease and insect resistance and cold tolerance to the commercial tomato. Since potatoes and tomatoes are in the same family, experiments have shown that by grafting a tomato stem onto a potato root, a gardener can have a plant that will produce both products. |
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Links to other sites with information about tomatoes:
| Crop Plant Resources | | Outreach and Educational Resources
| | Molecular Biology Program
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Please send comments and suggestions to: moconnel@nmsu.edu
Last Updated: June 5, 1998
