Family: Solanaceae
Lycopersicon
Citation:
Miller, Gard. Dict. edn 4 (1754).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Sprawling perennial herbs pubescent with glandular and non-glandular simple hairs, aromatic; leaves alternate, petiolate, interruptedly imparipinnate, leaflets entire or lobed, sessile or petiolulate.
Inflorescence a monochasial cyme usually extra-axillary, often leaf-opposed; calyx deeply 5-lobed, the lobes lanceolate, deflexed in fruit; corolla rotate, limb deeply 5-lobed, yellow; stamens inserted on the throat of the corolla tube; anthers basifixed, connivent, connective prolonged to a sterile appendage, dehiscing inwards by longitudinal slits; ovary 2-celled; stigma capitate.
Fruit a berry; seeds elliptical, compressed, enclosed in mucilage when fresh.
Distribution:
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About 10 species native to western South America and the Galapagos Islands. Closely related to Solanum. The cultivated tomato is an important food crop grown worldwide and naturalised in many warm temperate and tropical areas. (Symon (1981) J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 3:144).
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Prepared by D. E. Symon
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