Peruvian Wild Tomato

[Stepheninky]

Lycopersicon glandulosum
Peruvian Wild Tomato

This rare Solanum must be one of the most prettiest tomato plants. From the mountains of Peru, it grows quickly into a fat shrub about 3' tall and up to 4ft around , quite unlike its domesticated cousins. It's spectacular in bloom, with hundreds of flowers appearing in large clusters.

Cherry-sized fruits are fuzzy and ripen a whitish pale green with a light purple appearing at the shoulders.

Was wondering if any one has grown these or used them in crosses? Also is the fruit of the wild plant poisonous?

I have done some research on it and from what I can tell it is probably the same one discovered by the field botanist Hugh Iltis, he mailed the seeds to Professor Charles Rick of the University of California, a tomato geneticist.
By that time Iltis had almost forgotten tomato 832, but Rick had been putting it to good use. He had identified it as a completely new tomato species. Only seven had been known before; now there were nine -- Iltis had brought back another from that same expedition. Rick also discovered that the fruits of 832 were unusually high in soluble solids, especially sugars -- a finding of great interest to the tomato industry.

Rick began crossing Number 832 with commercial tomatoes. After 10 years of backcrossing, he finally produced new strains with larger fruit, greater color, and best of all, a soluble solid content as high as 8.6 percent -- as opposed to a normal tomato's 4 to 6 percent.

Wrote Rick to Iltis: "A number of years ago an expert estimated that each 0.5 percent increase in soluble solids would be worth about a million dollars. Greatly improved flavor is another benefit. I thought you might be interested in this use of your valuable collection and want to thank you again for your trouble and foresight in sharing it with us."

Also I believe this might also be the same parent plant that was crossed to obtain the OSU blue tomato.

I have a few seeds of it I will be growing out next year for crosses. Would appreciate any info any one has on it.