Tomatoes are varied and delicious, and are very good for health. It can be eaten in a variety of ways, raw or cooked, and is used in dishes, sauces, salads and drinks, making it a versatile ingredient.
The English name tomato of tomato comes from the Spanish tomate, meaning "swollen fruit", and the Indigenous South American Nawat language tomatl, meaning "fat meat". The scientific species name lycopersicum comes from Linnaeus's 1753 book Botanical Ethnography, which originated in Greek (λύκπερσκων), meaning "wolf peach".
Botanical classification
In 1753 Linnaeus classified tomatoes as nightshade (alongside potatoes), and in 1768 scottish botanist Philip Miller classified it as tomatoes, naming Lycopersicon esculentum the name Lycopersicon esculentum, which was widely used, but this violated plant nomenclature rules, as the species named lycopersicum by Linnaeus still had priority. Although Karsten (1888) suggested the use of the name Lycopersicum lycopersicum, it was not used because it violated international naming conventions and prohibited the use of synonyms in plant nomenclatures. The name Lycopersicon esculentum is more well-known, so as the correct name for tomatoes in plant classifications, the classification does not classify tomatoes in the genus Solanum.
Modern genetic evidence suggests that Linnaeus was correct in classifying tomatoes as nightshades. Tomato and diploid potato hybridization can be produced in the laboratory by somatic fusion and is partially fertile, suggesting a close relationship between the two species.
Origin history
The wild ancestors of tomatoes are native to western South America. Wild fruit is only the size of a pea, and the Aztecs and other local peoples were the first to domesticate the plant and use it in cooking. Already cultivated in southern Mexico since 500 BC, the Large Fruit Tomato variety, a mutant of the smaller-fruited tomato, originated in Central America and may have been the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes.
Greenhouses in the wilderness
The Aztecs cultivated many kinds of tomatoes, and friar Bernardino de Saagon described a wide variety of tomatoes in the tenochtitlan market: large tomatoes, small tomatoes, sweet tomatoes, serpentine tomatoes, heart-shaped tomatoes, etc., red, yellow, dark and other colors.
The market also sells a variety of tomato foods and sauces. So about the tomato is not what some information tells you, the locals regard it as a poisonous fruit, only for ornamentation, no one dares to eat. The natives were not stupid enough to spend a thousand years with tomatoes, but they did not know that tomatoes could eat them.
The Spaniard Hernán Cortés may have been the first to bring yellow tomatoes to Europe, and in 1544 the Italian physician and botanist Matteoli described a new type of eggplant that was brought to Italy, which was blood red or golden when ripe and could be cooked like eggplant with salt, black pepper and oil. It wasn't until ten years later that tomatoes were named "Golden Apples" by him, why was it called Golden Apples? Probably because the tomatoes first exposed were yellow.
The tomato was introduced to China in 1500, probably through the Philippines, and it was named tomato. Fanren is the ancient Chinese name for surrounding ethnic groups and foreign countries, so the things they bring or originate from them often have Fan characters, such as papaya and sweet potato.
Recording
The heaviest tomato with the heaviest fruit is 4.896 kg (2020) and the longest tomato plant is 19.8 meters long. The tomato with the most fruit per plant is a giant tomato tree in the greenhouse of Lake Buena Vista in Florida with a total weight of 522 kg, and its seeds come from Beijing, China.
In 2019, world tomato production was 181 million tonnes, with China accounting for 35% of the total, followed by India and Turkey.
Stalls in the wilderness
fact
Tomato leaves, stems and immature fruits contain small amounts of diplodolin, and the effects on humans have not been studied. Tomato leaves are also sometimes used for flavoring, and unripe fruits are also used for cooking. Although an overdose of raw tomatoes containing agaricin has been shown to cause poisoning, such cases are rare but should also be noted.
Tomatoes are best kept at room temperature and protected from light, and refrigeration will lose the flavor of tomatoes.
Storing the stalk downwards extends shelf life, and tomatoes that are not yet fully ripe can be cooked in a bag. The lifespan of tomato seeds is about 6-8 years, but some growers have reported that they can still germinate normally after about 10 years of drying and storage at room temperature.