Tomato

The Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, syn. Lycopersicon lycopersicum & Lycopersicon esculentum[1]) is an herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins tobacco, potatoes, aubergine (eggplants), chilli peppers, and the poisonous belladonna. It is a perennial, often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual. Typically reaching to 1–3 metres (3–10 ft) in height, it has a weak, woody stem that often vines over other plants. The leaves are 10–25 centimetres (4–10 in) long, odd pinnate, with 5–9 leaflets on petioles,[2] each leaflet up to 8 centimetres (3 in) long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. The flowers are 1–2 centimetres (0.4–0.8 in) across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla.

The tomato is native to South America and a prehistoric introduction to Central America and Southern parts of North America. Genetic evidence shows that the progenitors of tomatoes were herbaceous green plants with small green fruit with a center of diversity in the highlands of Peru. These early Solanums diversified into the dozen or so species of tomato recognized today. One species, Solanum Lycopersicum, was transported to Mexico where it was grown and consumed by prehistoric humans. The exact date of domestication is not known. Evidence supports the theory the first domesticated tomato was a little yellow fruit, ancestor of L. cerasiforme,[citation needed] grown by the Aztecs of Central Mexico who called it ‘xitomatl’ (pronounced zee-toe-má-tel), meaning plump thing with a navel, and later called tomatl by other Mesoamerican peoples. Aztec writings mention tomatoes were prepared with peppers, corn and salt, likely to be the original salsa recipe.

Some believe Spanish explorer Cortez may have been the first to transfer the small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtítlan in 1521, now Mexico City. Yet others believe Christopher Columbus, an Italian working for the Spanish monarchy, discovered the tomato earlier in 1493. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in an herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who named it pomi d’oro, golden apple.

Aztecs and other peoples in the region used the fruit in their cooking; it was being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas by 500BC. It is thought that the Pueblo people 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 Mesoamerica. Smith states this variant is the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes.According to Andrew F Smith's The Tomato in America,the tomato probably originated in the highlands of the west coast of South America. Smith notes there is no evidence the tomato was cultivated or even eaten in Peru before the Spanish arrived.