Tomato Facts

History

Tomatoes originate from the Andes in South America, where they grow wild in what is now Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Ecuador. They were first cultivated by the Aztecs and Incas as early as 700 AD.
The English word 'tomato' comes from the Aztec word, tomatl.
Tomatoes first arrived in Europe in the 16th Century, although how they got here is unclear. Some say that they were brought back from Central America by Spanish Conquistadors, while another legend suggests that two Jesuit priests brought them to Italy from Mexico.
The first cultivated tomatoes were yellow and cherry-sized, earning them the name golden apples: pommes d'or in French, pomi d'oro in Italian and goldapfel in German. The Italian for tomatoes today is pomodoro.
Soon after the tomato's arrival in Europe, it was also known as the Peruvian apple.
The Latin name for the cultivated tomato is Lycopersicon, or 'wolf peach', no doubt a reflection of the long-held belief that the tomato was poisonous. This view may have been the result of Renaissance botanists who, relying on Greek and Roman texts, wrongly identified and classified the tomato.
Tomatoes were originally grown in Britain and the rest of Europe as ornamental climbers and were cultivated for their decorative leaves and fruit. The first known British tomato grower was Patrick Bellow in 1554.
The Elizabethans thought the bright red colour of tomatoes was a danger signal and the fruit poisonous. Popular 16th century English herbalists, such as John Gerard, saw no contradiction in writing that, while Spaniards and Italians ate tomatoes, the plant was nevertheless 'of ranke and stinking savour.' Other herbalists used tomatoes (possibly the leaves rather than the fruit) in the treatment of skin complaints.
In fact, tomatoes are members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), which includes henbane, mandrake and deadly nightshade (belladonna), which are all poisonous. But potatoes, peppers and aubergines are also members of this plant family, as is tobacco. Nevertheless, we would not advise anyone to eat the leaves of tomato plants or the small green fruits sometimes found on potato plants.
People were eating tomatoes without fatal consequences long before the fruit made its way to Europe, and even longer before it found its way back to the Americas with British colonists. There are reports of one John Gibbon Johnson wolfing down tomatoes on the courthouse steps of Salem, New Jersey in 1820, in a public demonstration to prove their edibility. He did not fall to the ground, frothing at the mouth, or get appendicitis, as had been predicted. A good story, but probably as true as those about killer tomatoes in the movies.
Even so, the cultivated tomato bears the name Lycopersicon esculentum, or edible wolf peach, just to be on the safe side.
Species of tomatoes growing in the wild include:
- Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium, a species found growing in low altitude coastal valleys in Peru. It produces cherry-size red fruit and easily hybridises with cultivated varieties. It has been used in breeding programmes for commercial varieties and has been useful in introducing some disease resistance to these.
- Lycopersicon hirsutum,a green-fruited species found at high altitudes in moist river valleys up to 3,300 metres (10,000 feet), which is probably why it has densely hairy stems, leaves and fruit.
- Lycopersicon peruvianum, another green-fruited species which is very variable in character and is found over a wide area, as far south as the Arica province of Chile.
- Lycopersicon chilense is less variable and found in a more restricted area, mainly in Chile and southern Peru.
- Lycopersicon cheesmanii is an unusual species with ornate, frilly leaves found only on the Galapagos Islands off the Pacific coast of Equador. It has been used in plant breeding to introduce tolerance of salty conditions to commercial varieties.
The French were convinced tomatoes had aphrodisiac properties and called them pommes d'amour or love apples.
It was not until the 19th Century that commercial tomato cultivation began. The first glasshouses were built in Kent and Essex at this time, after large-scale production of sheet glass was developed.
Tomatoes are now the most widely grown 'vegetable' in the world and are cultivated as far north as Iceland and as far south as the Falkland Islands. Tomato seedlings have even been grown in Space and tomato seeds, which spent six years circling the earth in a satellite, have been compared with others which had stayed at home. No significant differences were found in the growth of plants from the two lots of seed.