Tomato

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, formerly Lycopersicon lycopersicum) is a plant in the

Solanaceae or nightshade family, native to Central and South America, from Mexico to Peru. It is a

short-lived perennial plant, grown as an annual plant, typically growing to 1-3 m in height, with a

weakly woody stem that usually scrambles over other plants. It is a close relative of the potato.

The leaves are 10-25 cm long, pinnate, with 5-9 leaflets, each leaflet up to 8 cm long, with

a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. The flowers are 1-2 cm

across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of 3-12 together.

The fruit is an edible, brightly coloured (usually red, from the pigment lycopene) berry, 1-2 cm

diameter in wild plants, commonly much larger in cultivated forms.

The word tomato derives from a word in the Nahuatl language, tomatl (IPA /tɔ.matɬ/).

According to Andrew F. Smith's The Tomato in America, the tomato probably originated in the

highlands on the west coast of South America. Smith notes that there is no evidence that the tomato

was cultivated or even eaten before the Spanish arrived. Other researchers, however, have pointed

out that this is not conclusive, as many other fruits in continuous cultivation in Peru are not

present in the very limited historical record. Much horticultural knowledge was lost after the

arrival of Europeans.

In any case, by some means the tomato migrated to Central America. Maya and other peoples in

the region used the fruit in their cooking, and it was being cultivated in southern Mexico, and

probably in other areas, by the sixteenth century. It is thought that the Pueblo believed that

those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of divination. The

large, lumpy tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated and was encouraged in

Central America. Smith states that this variant is the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated

tomatoes.

After the Spanish conquest of South America, the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout

their colonies in the Caribbean. They also brought it to the Philippines, from which point it moved

to southeast Asia and then the entire Asian continent.

The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe. It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and

cultivation began in the 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, though it was

certainly being used as food by the early 1600s in Spain. The earliest discovered cookbook with

tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these

recipes from Spanish sources.

Because the plant was clearly similar to its nightshade congeners, it was assumed for years

to be poisonous in Italy, where it was grown as a decorative plant. Eventually the peasant classes

discovered that it could be eaten when more desirable food was scarce. This eventually developed

into a whole cuisine of tomato dishes, as the wonders of the fruit became obvious. This development

took several hundred years, with wide acceptance not happening until the 18th century.