| Tomato | ||||||||||||||||||
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 A Greenhouse Produced Tomato | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Solanum lycopersicum L. | ||||||||||||||||||
The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, formerly Lycopersicon lycopersicum) is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, native to Central, South, and southern North 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 weak, woody stem that usually scrambles over other plants. The genus Solanum also contains the eggplant and the potato, as well as many poisonous species. 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 word tomato derives from a word in the Nahuatl language, tomatl. The specific name, lycopersicum, means "wolf-peach" (compare the related species S. lycocarpum, whose scientific name means "wolf-fruit", common name "wolf-apple").
History and distribution
Early history
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 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.
There is a competing theory that says the tomato, like the word "tomato", originated in Mexico, where one of the two apparently oldest "wild" types grows. It is entirely possible that domestication even arose in both regions independently.
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 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. 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, both originate by recent domestication of the wild tomato plants apparently native to eastern Mexico.
Spanish distribution
After the Spanish conquest of America, the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. They also took it to the Philippines, whence 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.
Tomatoes in Britain
The tomato plant was not grown in England until the 1590s, according to Smith. One of the earliest cultivators was John Gerard, a barber-surgeon. Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597 and largely plagiarized from continental sources, is also one of the earliest discussions of the tomato in England. Gerard knew that the tomato was eaten in both Spain and Italy. Nonetheless, he believed that it was poisonous (tomato leaves and stems contain poisonous glycoalkaloids, but the fruit is safe). Gerard's views were influential, and the tomato was considered unfit for eating (though not necessarily poisonous) for many years in Britain and its North American colonies. By the mid-1700s, however, tomatoes were widely eaten in Britain; and before the end of that century, the Encyclopædia Britannica stated that the tomato was "in daily use" in soups, broths, and as a garnish. Tomatoes were originally known as "Love Apples", possibly based on a mistranslation of the Italian name pomo d'oro (golden apple) as pomo d'amore.
North America
The earliest reference to tomatoes in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist William Salmon reported seeing them in what is today South Carolina. They may have been introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated on some Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the South as well. It is possible that some people continued to think tomatoes were poisonous at this time; and in general, they were grown more as ornamental plants than as food. Cultured people like Thomas Jefferson, who ate tomatoes in Paris and sent some seeds home, knew the tomato was edible, but many of the less well-educated did not.
Tomatoes in France
The tomato was introduced to France through Provence from Italy during the late 18th century and became a culinary symbol of the French Revolution due to its red color. They are widely eaten in French cuisine.
France is home to the 'Carolina', a rare, indeterminate, open-pollinated cultivar of tomato which possesses the tanginess of 'Brandywine' and the stature and externalities of the Early Swedish, that is, IPB. First noted by Italian monk Giacomo Tiramisunelli and his companion Andrea di Milininese somewhere near Bordeaux, more modern researches such as Dragos Niculae et al. and Nicolas Dela Nisan claim Belgium as the birthplace of the cultivar. Either way, the 'Carolina' is considered a rare delicacy amongst tomato-connoisseurs throughout France and beyond; it is the only cultivar of tomato traditionally served with Ortolan (fig-fed songbird). Claims that a San Diego-based U.S. biotech company is trying to genetically modify 'Carolina' to extend its potential geographic growth range has set off a minor furor in Bordeaux, with the president of a Belgian agro-commune, Victor DePlata, threatening extreme action Template:Fact.
Cultivation and uses
The tomato is now grown worldwide for its edible fruits, with thousands of cultivars having been selected with varying fruit types, and for optimum growth in differing growing conditions. Cultivated tomatoes vary in size from cherry tomatoes, about the same 1–2 cm size as the wild tomato, up to beefsteak tomatoes 10 cm or more in diameter. The most widely grown commercial tomatoes tend to be in the 5–6 cm diameter range. Most cultivars produce red fruit; but a number of cultivars with yellow, orange, pink, purple, green, or white fruit are also available. Multicolored and striped fruit can also be quite striking. Tomatoes grown for canning are often elongated, 7–9 cm long and 4–5 cm diameter; they are known as plum tomatoes.
Tomatoes are one of the most common garden vegetables in the United States and, along with zucchini, have a reputation for outproducing the needs of the grower.
As in most sectors of agriculture, there is increasing demand in developed countries for organic tomatoes, as well as heirloom tomatoes, to make up for flavor and texture faults in commercial tomatoes. Quite a few seed merchants and banks provide a large selection of heirloom seeds. Tomato seeds are occasionally organically produced as well, but only a small percentage of organic crop acreage is grown with organic seed.
Growing needs
For information on growing tomatoes, please see the relevant chapter in A Wikimanual of Gardening, and/or WikiHow: to Grow a Tomato Plant.
Cultivars
There are a great many tomato cultivars grown for various purposes. This section attempts a listing of some of the more common cultivars. Heirloom cultivars are becoming increasingly popular, particularly among home gardeners and organic producers, since they tend to produce more interesting and flavorful crops at the possible cost of some disease resistance. Hybrid plants remain common, however, since they tend to be heavier producers and sometimes combine unusual characteristics of heirloom tomatoes with the ruggedness of conventional commercial tomatoes.
Tomato cultivars are roughly divided into several categories, based mostly on shape and size. "Slicing" or "globe" tomatoes are the usual tomatoes of commerce; beefsteak tomatoes are large tomatoes often used for sandwiches and similar applications; plum tomatoes, or paste tomatoes, are bred with a higher solid content for use in tomato sauce and paste; and cherry tomatoes are small, often sweet tomatoes generally eaten whole in salads.
Tomatoes are also commonly classified as determinate or indeterminate. Determinate, or bush, types bear a full crop all at once and top off at a specific height; they are often good choices for container growing. Indeterminate cultivars develop into vines that never top off and continue producing until killed by frost. As an intermediate ground, there are plants sometimes known as "vigorous determinate" or "semi-determinate"; these top off like determinates but produce a second crop after the initial crop. Many, if not all, tomatoes described as heirlooms are indeterminate.
Commonly grown cultivars include:
- 'Beefsteak VFN' (a common hybrid resistant to Verticillium, Fusarium, and Nematodes)
- 'Big Boy' (a very common determinate garden cultivar in the United States)
- 'Black Krim' (a purple-and-red cultivar from the Crimea)
- 'Brandywine' (a pink, indeterminate beefsteak type with a considerable number of substrains)
- 'Burpee VF' (an early attempt by W. Atlee Burpee at disease resistance in a commercial tomato)
- 'Early Girl' (an early maturing globe type)
- 'Gardener's Delight' (a smaller English cultivar)
- 'Juliet' (a grape tomato developed as a substitute for the rare Santa F1)
- 'Marmande' (a heavily ridged cultivar from southern France; similar to a small beefsteak and available commercially in the U.S. as UglyRipe)
- 'Moneymaker' (an English greenhouse cultivar)
- Mortgage Lifter (a popular heirloom beefsteak known for gigantic fruit)
- 'Patio' (bred specifically for container gardens)
- 'Purple Haze' (large cherry, indeterminate. Derived from Cherokee Purple, Brandywine and Black Cherry)
- 'Roma VF' (a plum tomato common in supermarkets)
- 'Rutg
ers' (a commercial heirloom cultivar)
- 'San Marzano' (a plum tomato popular in Italy)
- 'Santa F1' (a Chinese grape tomato cultivar popular in the U.S. and parts of southeast Asia)
- 'Shephard's Sack' (a large variety popular in parts of Wales)
- 'Sweet 100' (a very prolific, indeterminate cherry tomato)
- 'Yellow Pear' (a yellow, pear-shaped heirloom cultivar)
Most modern tomato cultivars are smooth surfaced; but some older tomato cultivars and most modern beefsteaks often show pronounced ribbing, a feature that may have been common to virtually all pre-Columbian cultivars. In addition, some tomato cultivars produce fruit in colors other than red, including yellow, orange, pink, black, brown, and purple, though such fruit is not widely available in grocery stores, nor are their seedlings available in typical nurseries, but must be bought as seed, often via mail-order. Likewise, some less common varieties have fruit fuzzy skin, as is the case with the Fuzzy Peach tomato and Red Boar tomato plants.
There is also a considerable gap between commercial and home-gardener cultivars; home cultivars are often bred for flavor to the exclusion of all other qualities, while commercial cultivars are bred for such factors as consistent size and shape, disease and pest resistance, and suitability for mechanized picking and shipping.
Diseases and pests
- Main article: List of tomato diseases
Tomato cultivars vary widely in their resistance to disease. Modern hybrids focus on improving disease resistance over the heirloom plants. One common tomato disease is tobacco mosaic virus, and for this reason smoking or use of tobacco products should be avoided around tomatoes.[1] Various forms of mildew and blight are also common tomato afflictions, which is why tomato cultivars are usually marked with letters like VFN, which refers to disease resistance to verticillium wilt, fusarium fungus, and nematodes.
Some common tomato pests are cutworms, tomato hornworms, aphids, cabbage loopers, whiteflies, tomato fruitworms, flea beetles, slugs,[2] and Colorado potato beetles.
Pollination
In the wild, original state, tomatoes required cross-pollination; they were much more self-incompatible than domestic cultivars. As a floral device to reduce selfing, the pistils of wild tomatoes extended farther out of the flower than today's cultivars. The stamens were, and remain, entirely within the closed corolla.
As tomatoes were moved from their native areas, their traditional pollinators, (probably a species of halictid bee) did not move with them. The trait of self-fertility (or self-pollenizing) became an advantage and domestic cultivars of tomato have been selected to maximize this trait.
This is not the same as self-pollination, despite the common claim that tomatoes do so. That tomatoes pollinate themselves poorly without outside aid is clearly shown in greenhouse situations where pollination must be aided by artificial wind, vibration of the plants (one brand of vibrator is a wand called an "electric bee" that is used manually), or more often today, by cultured bumblebees.
The anther of a tomato flower is shaped like a hollow tube, with the pollen produced within the structure rather than on the surface, as with most species. The pollen moves through pores in the anther, but very little pollen is shed without some kind of outside motion.
The best source of outside motion is a sonicating bee such as a bumblebee or the original wild halictid pollinator. In an outside setting, wind or biological agents provide sufficient motion to produce commercially viable crops.
Hydroponic and greenhouse cultivation
Tomatoes are often grown in greenhouses in cooler climates, and indeed there are cultivars such as the British 'Moneymaker' and a number of cultivars grown in Siberia that are specifically bred for indoor growing. In more temperate climates, it is not uncommon to start seeds for future transplant in greenhouses during the late winter as well. With the transplanting of tomatoes, there is a process of hardening that the plant must go through before being able to be placed outside inorder to have greater survival.
Hydroponic tomatoes are also available, and the technique is often used in hostile growing environments as well as high-density plantings.
Picking and ripening
Tomatoes are often picked unripe (and thus green) and ripened in storage with ethylene. Ethylene is a hydrocarbon gas produced by many fruits that act as the cue to begin the ripening process. Tomatoes ripened in this way tend to keep longer but have poorer flavor and a mealier, starchier texture than tomatoes ripened on the plant. They may be recognized by their color, which is more pink or orange than the other ripe tomatoes' deep red.
In 1994 Calgene introduced a genetically modified tomato called the 'FlavrSavr' which could be vine ripened without compromising shelf life. However, the product was not commercially successful (see main article for details) and was only sold until 1997.
Recently, stores have begun selling "tomatoes on the vine", which are determinate varieties that are ripened or harvested with the fruits still connected to a piece of vine. These tend to have more flavor than artificially ripened tomatoes (at a price premium), but still may not be the equal of local garden produce.
Slow-ripening cultivars of tomato have been developed by crossing a non-ripening cultivar with ordinary tomato cultivars. Cultivars were selected whose fruits have a long shelf life and at least reasonable flavor. These have been nicknamed "Thrushworthy Bumbletots", as this is the name of the machine system used to clean the tomatoes before processing to be canned or shipped. The name is an example of onomatopoeia.
Modern uses of tomatoes
Tomatoes are now eaten freely throughout the world, although their seeds cannot be digested and pass straight through human intestines. Today, their consumption is believed to benefit the heart. Lycopene, one of nature's most powerful antioxidants, is present in tomatoes and has been found to be beneficial in preventing prostate cancer, among other things. The greatest benefits are accrued through eating cooked tomatoes rather than raw.[3]
Botanically a fruit, the tomato is nutritionally categorized as a vegetable (see below). Since "vegetable" is not a botanical term, there is no contradiction in a plant part being a fruit botanically while still being considered a vegetable.
Tomatoes are used extensively in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines, especially Italian ones. The tomato has an acidic property that is used to bring out other flavors. This same acidity makes tomatoes especially easy to preserve in home canning as tomato sauce or paste. The first to commercially can tomatoes was Harrison Woodhull Crosby in Jamesburg, New Jersey. Tomato juice is often canned and sold as a beverage. Unripe green tomatoes can also be used to make salsa, be breaded and fried, or pickled.
The town of Buñol, Spain, annually celebrates La Tomatina, a festival centered on an enormous tomato fight. Tomatoes are also a popular "non-lethal" throwing weapon in mass protests; and there is a common tradition of throwing rotten tomatoes at bad actors or singers on a stage, although this tradition is more symbolic as of today.
Known for its tomato growth and production, the Mexican state of Sinaloa takes the tomato as its symbol.[4]
Culinary uses of tomatoes include:
- Tomato paste
- Tomato purée
- Tomato pie
- Gazpacho (Andalusian cuisine)
- Ketchup
- Pa amb tomàquet (Catalan cuisine)
- Pizza
- Tomato sauce (common in Italian cuisine)
Storage
Most tomatoes today are picked before fully ripe. They are bred to continue ripening, but the enzyme that ripens tomatoes stops working when it reaches temperatures below 12.5 °C. Once an unripe tomato drops below that temperature, it will not continue to ripen. Once fully ripe, tomatoes can be stored in the refrigerator but are best eaten at room temperature.
Myths of the Tomato
Template:Unreferenced There are many legends about the tomato. For example, it has been claimed that tomatoes were not widely eaten in the U.S until the late 1800s. It has sometimes been claimed that tomatoes were considered aphrodisiacs and so were shunned by the Puritans. Other claims center on the supposed fear that tomatoes were poisonous, based on the fact that they belong to the Solanales Order, or "Nightshade" family, which contains many toxic plants. Many legends also maintain that the tomato was introduced into the U.S. from South America by one particular person; Thomas Jefferson is sometimes mentioned.
Tomatoes' status as an aphrodisiac may be due to a mistranslation. Legend has it a Frenchman on his travels ate a meal with tomatoes in it and was fascinated with the new taste. He went back to the chef who was Italian and asked him what this new ingredient was. The chef said "Pomme de' Moors" (Apple of the Moors), but the Frenchman misunderstood and thought he said "Pomme d'Amore" (Apple of Love). The modern Italian word for tomato is "pomodoro."
The most famous legend of this sort was introduced by Joseph S. Sickler in the mid-1900s, and became the subject of a CBS broadcast of You Are There in 1949. The story goes that the lingering doubts about the safety of the tomato in the United States were largely put to rest in 1820, when Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson announced that at noon on September 26, he would eat a basket of tomatoes in front of the Salem, New Jersey, courthouse. Reportedly, a crowd of more than 2,000 persons gathered in front of the courthouse to watch the poor man die after eating the poisonous fruits, and were shocked when he lived. In his book Smith notes that there is little, if any, historical evidence for any of these legends, and that they continue to be repeated largely because they are entertaining stories.
It is also said that the tomato became popular in France during the French Revolution, because the revolutionaries' iconic color was red; and at one point it was suggested that they should eat red food as a show of loyalty. Since European royalty was still leery of the nightshade-related tomato, it apparently was the perfect choice. This may also be why the first reported use of the tomato in the U.S. was in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1812, because of the French influence in that region.
There is also a story which claims that an agent for Britain attempted to kill General George Washington by feeding him a dish laced with tomatoes during the American Revolution.
"Tomato" also has been used a slang word for an attractive woman. This use was most common from the 1920s through the 1940s.
Most people think a tomato is classed as a vegetable but it is a fruit.
Controversies
Botanical classification
In 1753 the tomato was placed in the genus Solanum by Linnaeus as Solanum lycopersicum L. (derivation, 'lyco', wolf, plus 'persicum', peach, i.e., "wolf-peach"). However, in 1768 Philip Miller placed it in its own genus, and he named it Lycopersicon esculentum. This name came into wide use but was in breach of the plant naming rules. Technically, the combination Lycopersicon lycopersicum (L.) H.Karst. would be more correct, but this name (published in 1881) has hardly ever been used. Therefore, it was decided to conserve the well-known Lycopersicon esculentum, making this the correct name for the tomato when it is placed in the genus Lycopersicon.
However, genetic evidence (e.g., Peralta & Spooner 2001) has now shown that Linnaeus was correct in the placement of the tomato in the genus Solanum, making the Linnaean name correct; if Lycopersicon is excluded from Solanum, Solanum is left as a paraphyletic taxon. Despite this, it is likely that the exact taxonomic placement of the tomato will be controversial for some time to come, with both names found in the literature.
A genome project for the tomato was begun in 2004, with a draft version of the full genome expected to be published by 2008. The genomes of its organelles (mitochondria and chloroplast) are also expected to be published as part of the project.
Fruit or vegetable?
Botanically speaking, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant: a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. However, from a culinary perspective, the tomato is not as sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and it is typically served as part of a main course of a meal, as are other vegetables, rather than at dessert. As noted above, the term "vegetable" has no botanical meaning and is purely a culinary term.
This argument has led to actual legal implications in the United States, Australia and China. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy in 1893, declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, using the popular definition which classifies vegetable by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. The case is known as Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304). Strictly speaking, the holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and not much else. The court does not purport to reclassify tomato for botanical or for any other purpose other than paying a tax under a tariff act. However, the USDA also considers the tomato a vegetable.
The tomato has been designated the state vegetable of New Jersey. Arkansas takes both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its botanical and culinary classifications. In 2006, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a law that would have declared the tomato to be the official state fruit, but the bill died when the Ohio Senate failed to act on it.
But due to the scientific definition of a fruit and a vegetable, the tomato still remains a fruit when not dealing with tariffs. Nor is it the only culinary vegetable that is a botanical fruit: eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (including zucchini and pumpkins) share the same ambiguity.
The grocers' definition is that a tomato is a vegetable based on the fact that fruits are sweet and vegetables are not.
===Pro nunciation=== The pronunciation of tomato differs in different English-speaking countries; the two most common variants are /təˈmɑːtəʊ/ and /təˈmeɪtoʊ/. Speakers from the British Isles, most of the Commonwealth, and older generations among speakers of Southern American English typically say /təˈmɑːtəʊ/, while most American and Canadian speakers usually say /təˈmeɪtoʊ/. Most or all languages, apart from American English, have a word that corresponds more to the former pronunciation, including the original Nahuatl word from which they are all taken.
The word's dual pronunciations were immortalized in Ira and George Gershwin's 1937 song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" (You like /pəˈteɪtoʊ/ and I like /pəˈtɑːtəʊ/ / You like /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ and I like /təˈmɑːtəʊ/) and have become a symbol for nitpicking pronunciation disputes. In this capacity it has even become an American slang term: saying /təˈmeɪtoʊ, təˈmɑːtəʊ/ when presented with two choices can mean "Why should I care? There's no real difference."
Safety
On October 30, 2006 the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that tomatoes might be the source of a salmonella outbreak causing 172 illnesses in 18 states.[1] The affected states include: Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont and Wisconsin. Tomatoes have been linked to 7 salmonella outbreaks since 1990 (from the Food Safety Network).[5]
Tomato records
The heaviest tomato ever was one of 3.51 kg (7 lb 12 oz), of the cultivar 'Delicious', grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma, in 1986. The largest tomato plant grown was of the cultivar 'Sungold' and reached 19.8 m (65 ft) length, grown by Nutriculture Ltd (UK) of Mawdesley, Lancashire, UK, in 2000.
See also
- Tomato stain
- Glycemic index
- Canned tomatoes
- Fried green tomatoes (food)
- Tomatillo (Mexican green "tomato")
- Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Notes
- Smith, A. F. (1994). The Tomato in America. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-07009-7.
- Peralta, I. E. & Spooner, D. M. (2001). Granule-bound starch synthase (Gbssi) gene phylogeny of wild tomatoes (Solanum L. section Lycopersicon [Mill.] Wettst. Subsection Lycopersicon). American Journal of Botany 88 (10): 1888–1902 (available online).
References
- ↑ Tomato-Tobacco Mosaic Virus Disease Extension.umn.edu. URL Accessed June 30, 2006.
- ↑ Slugs in Home Gardens Extension.umn.edu. URL Accessed July 14, 2006.
- ↑ Health benefits of tomatoes
- ↑ http://www.sinaloa.gob.mx
- ↑ http://www.foodsafetynetwork.ca/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=953
External links
- All About Square Foot Gardening A system for growing tomatoes in small spaces or poor soil
- The On-line Tomato Vine (Keith Mueller)
- "I say tomayto, you say tomahto" (Sam Cox)
- Tomato Study and History
- Tomato Pests
- Tomato Genome Sequencing Project
- Photos of heirloom varieties (not in English)
- Tomatoes in Macedonia
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[[Category
- Crops originating from the Americas]]