Coyote - a white tomato?

[nctomatoman]

Don't forget that both Mexico Midget and Coyote are considered to be "wild" tomatoes in Mexico - each of my sources (Barney Laman for Mexico Midget, Maye Clement for Coyote) stated that - and the foliage and plant habit for each are far more branched and rampant, and the foliage far more "delicate" than other small fruited tomatoes.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fusion_power

Carolyn,

My primary reason for suspecting it has Piminellifolium in the background is that it has the jagged leaf and multiple stem traits. These are not found to that degree in pure Esculentum. The trichomes and stomata are very similar to Cerasiforme. So my best guess is that it is derived from a cross of cerasiforme X Pimpinellifolium but I would be hard pressed to prove it other than to note that some of the traits are common to those two groups.

DarJones

I think the only way to prove it is by DNA analysis and I'll tell you why. And that's b/c it's not uncommon for there to be interspecies crosses and then with time they stabilize out genetically.

I had asked someone going to the Galapagos Islands to try and bring me back S. cheesmanii, but what I got back were actual fruits of a small red, cheesmanii is orange but there are a couple of variants, and I ended up calling the PGRC and talked with Dr. Chatelet about it.

it turns out that the PGRC has a very complete list of what's been found growing on the various islands in the Galapagos and since I knew the island it came from he was able to tell me that there was a high probablility that it was an interpsecies cross, probably between S. Pimpinellifolium and S. lycopesicon or a cerasiforme variant of the latter.

He also pointed me towards some scientists from the UK who had been doing DNA analysis of accessions from the Galapagos and they too could confirm stable genetic interpsecies crosses.

So there are accessions, varieties, variants out there that do exhibit traits from more than one genetic origin as a result of an initial natural cross.

it's also felt that the tomatoes growing in the Galapagos initially got there from Mexico. So that begs the question of actually where the natural interspecies crosses occurred and suggests that it could have been one or the other or both places where those crosses did occur and still are occuring.

I have to tell you that I can make sense of all that Dr. Chatelet shared with me and also looking at those UK papers, but they all referred to red or orange fruited accessions; no pinks, no whites, no nothing else.

White currants are rare compared to reds, and color-wise white is recessive to almost any other color, especially all the red ones, so for me the exact taxonomic placement of something like Coyote remains a puzzle if and until DNA analysis is done.

BTW, the one I discussed above was named Sara's Galapagos by the person who brought it back and I love it; much better tasting than any red currant I ever grew. And I have yet to grow Coyote.

[Fert1]

I have to say I've been very happy with Coyote. It's productive and one of the most unusual tasting varieties. I've seen posts where people think SunGolds have an unusual fruity flavor, but to me Coyote is even more unusual. I like it at "white" stage where it tastes like a tomato, and I also like it at the yellow stage where it tastes more like a sweet berry. I could literally eat it in yogurt or something like that, like you would strawberries or blueberries. The thin skins are also nice, although it makes picking them very tricky.

[nctomatoman]

The chef at the local restaurant Zely and Ritz in Raleigh (where they've done a series of tomato themed dinners for several years) loves them, and has used them in various desserts to sometimes really good, sometimes shall we say "interesting" effect!

[Fert1]

Oh, that sounds really cool! I'd love to hear more about that. Some of the really ripe ones taste a little like a muscadine or passion fruit to me.