The Story of Tomato

Garden tomato is Solanum lycopersicum, a berry that USDA has defined as a vegetable.

How it was found

Kew’s taxon page maps Native to: Peru, and treats the native range as a cultigen from Peru. Life form on that page: a scrambling subshrub of the wet tropical biome. Jepson eFlora prints native to South America, treats the plant as a California waif, and lists Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. as a synonym, with many cultivated forms. USDA-ARS GRIN lists the species as widely cultivated and widely naturalized.

UC pages add other origin sentences. UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County write that the tomato was cultivated by the Aztecs and Incas as early as 700 AD, and that page calls it native to Mexico and Central America. UC Master Food Preservers of Orange County write that the modern tomato originated in the southern Andes, coastal deserts of Peru, and Ecuador and parts of central Mexico, and that it was already widely cultivated by the Aztecs as far north as Mexico when Europeans arrived. A San Diego Master Gardeners PDF prints originated in Central America.

How people used it

Kew use classes for the species include food, animal food, medicine, poison, environmental uses, social uses, and invertebrate food. UC Orange County Master Food Preservers: botanically a fruit (a berry); USDA has defined it as a vegetable; California produces about 95 percent of U.S. processing tomatoes.

Kew also lists medicinal use.

Timeline

1. As a cultigen (Kew)

   From Peru, on Kew’s map

   Kew POWO prints the native range as a cultigen from Peru, Native to: Peru.

   Kew POWO — Solanum lycopersicum L.

2. By 700 AD (UC Sacramento MG)

   Aztec and Inca gardens

   UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County print that the tomato was cultivated by the Aztecs and Incas as early as 700 AD, and that page calls it native to Mexico and Central America.

   UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County — Heirloom tomatoes

3. Early 16th century

   Tomatl becomes tomate

   UC Orange County Master Food Preservers write that the Aztec (Nahuatl) word tomatl roughly translates as plump fruit, and that in the early 16th century Spanish explorers changed tomatl to tomate. The same page places the modern tomato in the southern Andes, coastal deserts of Peru, and Ecuador and parts of central Mexico.

   UC Master Food Preserver Program of Orange County

4. 1753

   Named in Species Plantarum

   Linnaeus published Solanum lycopersicum in Species Plantarum: 185. Kew accepts the name. Jepson lists Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. as a synonym and notes many cultivated forms.

   Kew POWO; Jepson eFlora

5. Mid-1800s United States

   Into U.S. kitchen gardens

   UC Sacramento Master Gardeners write that it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that the tomato became a staple in U.S. kitchen gardens. That page also notes some Native American tribes and Creoles of New Orleans already had a long history of its use.

   UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County

6. After World War II

   Bred to ship

   UC Sacramento Master Gardeners write that long-distance shipping after WWII drove hybridization for uniform size, thicker skin, and disease resistance; flavor was not a major breeding goal on that page. That is why a supermarket tomato can look perfect and still taste flat.

   UC Master Gardeners of Sacramento County

Cool to know

Growing notes for this plant live on the Plant Wiki.