The world's leading vegetable crop by value, domesticated in the Americas from a wild cherry-sized fruit and carried to Europe in the Columbian Exchange, where it was long grown as an ornamental curiosity before conquering the world's kitchens. Botanically a fruit, farmed and traded as a vegetable, and the flagship crop of greenhouse horticulture. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Scientific Name Domestication RegionWestern South America and Mesoamerica (Mexico the likely center of full domestication) 1 Domesticated When (Circa)by circa 500 BC in Mesoamerica 1 Connections
Associated With
Fusarium wilt of tomato (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici) is the archetypal disease that gave the fungus its host-specific 'forma specialis' naming.
Late blight (Phytophthora infestans) attacks tomato as well as potato and caused the Irish famine on the latter.
Root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne spp.) are among the most economically damaging pathogens of cultivated tomato worldwide.
The tomato leafminer (Tuta absoluta) is one of the most damaging invasive insect pests of cultivated tomato.
Tomato spotted wilt virus is a major thrips-transmitted disease of tomato worldwide.
Tomato yellow leaf curl virus, spread by whitefly, is one of the most damaging tomato viral diseases globally.
Sources
1. Tomato (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationlead description or Wikipedia lead (primary-uses)Quote, lead description or Wikipedia lead (primary-uses)
The tomato (US: , UK: ; Solanum lycopersicum) is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable.
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