The Tomato

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Red tomatoes, raw Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 20 kcal 80 kJ
Carbohydrates 4 g - Sugars 2.6 g - Dietary fiber 1 g Fat 0.2 g Protein 1 g Vitamin C 13 mg 22% Water 95 g
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults.

The tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum, syn. Solanum lycopersicum) is an herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins tobacco, chili peppers, potato, and eggplant. The tomato is native to Central, South, and southern North America from Mexico to Argentina. Evidence supports the theory that the first domesticated tomato was a little yellow fruit, ancestor of L. cerasiforme, grown by the Aztecs in Mexico who called it ‘xitomatl’ (pronounced shi-to-ma-tlh), meaning plump thing with a navel. It is a perennial, often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual, typically reaching to 1-3m (3 to 10 ft) in height, with a weak, woody stem that often vines over other plants. The leaves are 10–25 cm long, odd pinnate, with 5–9 leaflets on petioles^[1], each leaflet up to 8cm long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. The flowers are 1–2cm across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of 3–12 together. The word tomato derives from a word in the Nahuatl language, tomatl. The specific name, lycopersicum, means "wolf-peach" (compare the related species Solanum lycocarpum, whose scientific name means "wolf-fruit", common name "wolf-apple"), as they are a major food of wild canids in South America.

History and Distribution

Early history

A variety of heirloom tomatoes.

According to Andrew F Smith's The Tomato in America^[2], 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, while other researchers have pointed out that many other fruits in continuous cultivation in Peru are not present in the very limited historical record.

There is a competing hypothesis that says the plant, like the word "tomato", originated in Mexico, where one of the two apparently oldest "wild" types grows. It is entirely possible that domestication arose in both regions independently. Diversity data suggests the center of diversity for wild tomatoes is located in Peru, while that of cultivated tomatoes, in Mexico. Thus, it can be hypothesized that wild tomatoes were introduced from Peru to Mexico, where they were domesticated.

In any case, by some means the tomato migrated to Central America. Mayans and other peoples in the region used the fruit in their cooking, and it was being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas by the 16th Century. It is thought that the Pueblo people believed those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of divination^{[citation needed]}. The large, lumpy tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated and was encouraged in Central America. Smith states this variant is the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes.

Two modern tomato cultivar groups, one represented by the Matt's Wild Cherry tomato, the other by currant tomatoes, originate by recent domestication of the wild tomato plants apparently native to eastern Mexico.