World's Oldest Tomato

[Deborah]

Is there "the oldest tomato"? By that I mean, the oldest known tomato? And where was it?

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Deborah

Is there "the oldest tomato"? By that I mean, the oldest known tomato? And where was it?

In King Tuts tomb!

Sorry couldn't resist. You mean variety? You mean living plant? Or you mean actual mummified tomato?

[Deborah]

I guess I mean first recorded as history.

[Redbaron]

Solanum Pimpinellifollium

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Deborah

I guess I mean first recorded as history.

I don't know what year it was but it was Dr. Rick who first identified I think it was 7 species of tomatoes in the highlands of Chile and Peru and now there's about a total of 13 or 14 species that have been Ided and named, as a species, not with a variety name.

The origin of tomatoes was in South America but no ones know how long ago.

When the Spanish invaded S America they took back with them some of those species, specifically one that was yellow, perhaps S. cheesmanii, and spread it around all of their trade routes in the Caribbean, the Phillipines and the far east on their spice trade routes.

And it was they who introduced the tomato to Spain all those years ago, and it was yellow. Eventually there was evolution and mutation in Spain and Priests took some red ones to Italy. But the first ones in Italy were also yellow and called pomme de oro, or apple of gold from whence the word Pomodoro is derived.

that was initiated in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Eventually some of the species made it to Mexico , no one knows exactly how, either bird transmission or possibly natives doing so, and I just spoke to what the Spanish took and that was one route, but then some of the species were brought from Mexico to what we know as the US and were spread along the Gulf Coast as far East as Florida.

In every SSE YEarbook listed under other species one will find quite a few listed, some named, some not, that are available still today, S. pimpinellifolium, the currant species being one of them.

And yet another route was from S America to the Galapagos Islands and the Rick Center and others know which species are on which Islands, which is why when I asked someone to bring me back some S. Cheesmanii, which is salt tolerant, and what I got was red, not yellow, I contacted Dr. Chatelet at the Rick Center and knowing the island they came from he could tell me that what I had was probably a stable interspecies cross between a cuurant and an unknown other parent.

that one was named Sara's Galapagos by Amy Goldman Fowler for her daughter and it was Amy that I had asked to please get me the chessmanii one, and Sara's is one of my favoite wee fruited varieties.

All these many years ago that happened and what she sent me when she returned were actual friuts, I don't know how she got them through customs, but I still had time to get the seeds out and sowed them with no processing, grew the plants and sent seeds back to her and she named it.

So, depending on how you want to define the worlds' oldest tomato, I think that does go back to S America and if you want to know when they were first Ided, that would go to Dr. Rick. He died just a few years ago at an old age, so that would mean they were Ided less than 100 years ago.

And I'm not talking here of the many varieties that have names, many of them pre-1800 ones bc they all evolved from those fist species from South America. Pre-1800 ones that I've grown are Green Gage, Roi Humbert and the Red and Yellow Pears, as far as I can remember.

There are several scientist working on the evolution of the tomato and have ided the ges(s) that caused upsizing and much more. The major group doing this work is Dr. Esther Van der Knapp at Ohio State University. But Dr. Zach Lipmann, now at Cold Spring Harbor has also done some wonderful work in the area. I know both of them, and have interacted with both of them, on guess what, yes, seeds of tomato varieties they wanted to work with.

[Cole_Robbie]

[bbjm]

I agree with Cole_Robbie. I kept hitting refresh, knowing that Carolyn would provide an interesting post. She did not disappoint.

[Deborah]

Awesome, Carolyn ! Thank you ! That's what I meant !

[Worth1]

This is not to take away from what Carolyn had to say only addition.

There is some controversy of the origin and domestication of the tomato.
One side thinks it was the Inca and the other the Aztecs or maybe the Mayans.
The first are from the Andes and the greater part of western South America and the latter are from what we call Mexico or Mesoamerica.
It could be very well that it was a parallel origin.
This is what I think, there is no reason to think not.
There are many other plants that were domesticated or eaten in the wild by groups of people that never saw each other. The palm tree is but just one.

Tomatoes were first recorded in Italy in 1544 another source says 1548 who knows.
If Cortez or Columbus brought it back then they more than likely got it it from Central America.
It may have been Pizarro if it came from the Inca.

As I have said before it would do you all well to read up on the history of the exploration of this area
Not just to remember dates and who it was but the fascinating stories.
And the people that lived there and how they lived.

Worth