Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.

Garden Tomato

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Garden Tomato is an introduced herbaceous annual in the Nightshade family (Solanaceae). It is native to Central and western South America. Garden Tomato is widely cultivated for its edible fruit in gardens throughout the state and is sometimes collected as a waif. Garden Tomato occurs in disturbed urban areas (especially near produce stands or picnic tables), along roads and railroads, along streams (especially those receiving stormwater run-off from urban areas), around waste water treatment plants, in fields and gardens, and on sewage sludge. It is a decumbent, sprawling, indeterminate vine to 6-8 feet in length. It often roots when in contact with the soil. The stems are freely branched, green in color, and viscid pubescent. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, pubescent, irregularly lobed to bipinnatifid, with the segments coarsely lobed. The foliage has a strong odor when crushed. Flowers are produced in axillary or terminal panicles. Individual flowers have a pubescent green calyx with 5 linear lobes. The corolla is yellow with 5 recurved lobes. The five yellow stamens are united, and there is a single style. The fruit is an edible red or yellow berry. Garden Tomato has a long history of cultivation and many varieties and cultivars have been developed. It is the most popular vegetable grown by home gardeners in the United States. Technically speaking, a structure formed from an angiosperm's ovary and containing seed is a fruit. However, the Supreme Court of the United States in the 1893 Nix v. Hedden case declared they were vegetables because of the way they were consumed: “Vegetables are things usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats ... and not, like fruits generally, as dessert."—A. Diamond.

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Not Native

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