That the family also contains many edible members (potatoes, chili peppers, and eggplants among them) did not help the tomato’s reputation, because of these only the eggplant was familiar to Europeans in the 16th century. They were cultivated in ancient Mexico. Instead, the colonists grew tomatoes purely for decoration. This Greek term appears to follow an old German word for tomato, wolfpfirsich, which also translates into English as “wolf peach.” Exactly how old this word was, and how common, is hard to ascertain; like many “facts” in tomato history, considerable fog surrounds this one, and many sources remain either silent or contradictory on numerous points of interest. Literally translated, the original Latin name translates as “Wolfpeach”. The exact origin of Tomato plant is not known, although it is speculated that it evolved from the prehistoric plant Nighshade over millions of years ago in South America (together with potato, tobacco and chili peppers) and slowly moved to north until it was domesticated in the lands of Mesoamerica between Mexico and northern Costa Rica.. Learn more about the plant, its cultivation, and its history of domestication. This was exacerbated by the interaction of the tomato's acidic juice with pewterplates. Re-usable plastic saucers protect floors and decks from over-watering. By the 1920s, a “hot tomato” was slang for an attractive woman, and though the term is no longer current, most Americans recognize it. The answer lies first in appearances and then in names. Slang meaning "an attractive girl" is recorded from 1929, on notion of juicy plumpness. An entirely different theory for why the tomato got off to a rocky start in the US also focuses on names. During Colonial Times, we wouldn’t put a tomato near our mouths, let alone try to eat one. Talk about taking the long way around. By the time the conquistadors came to Central and South America, there was widespread cultivation of tomatoes, though there’s much debate about where tomatoes were first raised and about exactly how they made their way north to Mexico. By the mid 16th century, it had been mentioned in a Nepalese cookbook. It was regarded with suspicion as a food because botanists recognized it as a nightshade, a relative of the poisonous belladonna. In fact, if inclined, you can nurse a tomato through the winter indoors and set it out again the next year. Because of that resemblance, many early botanists recognized the relationship of tomatoes to the Solanaceae family, the name deriving from the Latin Solanum for “the nightshade plant;” Solanum itself became a finer division (what was later called a genus) under Solanaceae. It also may have gotten a big boost from a seemingly unlikely source: Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Gentle on plant stems, yet strong enough to secure heavy vines and limbs. Even if we lose the Jefferson-as-promoter-of-the-tomato theory, there appear to be any number of great anecdotes to choose from, all equally suspect historically speaking, but all entertaining. 1753, earlier tomate (c. 1600), from Spanish tomate (mid-16c.) In France, Italy and northern Europe, the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant. Even more bizarre, the fruit was not introduced to the U.S. and Canada via Mexico, where it was well established, but via European immigrants. Why did tomatoes have such a bad reputation early in our history? Furthermore, this plant that most Americans grow exclusively as an annual is actually a perennial and will grow as such in its native and wild state. It’s also unclear whether Spanish explorers knew about the tomato’s reputation as a love aid, though they did think enough of the tomato to bring it back to Europe, where it was embraced long before we Americans succumbed to its charms. This pre-measured, "in-the-ground" delivery system lasts up to 8 weeks. Better Reds has been tested to show on average a 20% increase in fruit yield. In his decision, Justice Gray wrote: “Botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruits of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. Thanks David!). When’s the last time you had a fresh, great tasting tomato from the supermarket? Planet Natural offers heirloom tomato seeds that are non-treated, non-GMO and NOT purchased from Monsanto-owned Seminis. Americans may be in love with tomatoes today, but history shows us that the relationship got off to a rocky start. In 1753 Linnaeus rejected Tournefort’s separate genus Lycopersicon and placed tomatoes back in Solanum, calling the cultivated tomato the familiar S. Lycopersicon — both poison and wolves. The wild ancestor of the tomato is native to western South America. An encyclopedia of 1753 describes it as "a fruit eaten either stewed or raw by the Spaniards and Italians and by the Jew families of England." When he didn’t, this legend avers, tomatoes were redeemed and were gradually accepted as food, though preferably in a highly processed form, after extended exposure to heat, vinegar, and spices. The botanical claim was not in dispute; tomatoes, as the seed-bearing ripened ovary of a flower, are fruits. It is amusing to think that the tomato, which most of us think of as quintessentially Italian, in fact evolved on a different continent in a different hemisphere. It was not until around the 16th century that Europeans were introduced to this fruit when the early explorers set sail to discover new lands. Accolades continue today. One gives us a Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson in 1830, who set out to eat a basket of tomatoes on the steps of the local courthouse, where a crowd collected to watch him foam at the mouth, twitch and generally carry on until he finally expired. A tomato importer named John Nix sued the tax collector for the port of New York, Edward L. Hedden, arguing that tomatoes, since they were “really” fruits, should be exempt from the tax. Soft, non-burning nylon mesh protects delicate stems, foliage, vines and fruits. Tomato ketchup was popular long before salad tomatoes were. The cause was not advanced by the great botanist Carl Linnaeus, father of the six-level taxonomy still in use today (kingdom, phylum, order, family, genus, species), and of the double-barreled Latinate naming system we all know and love, which gives first the genus and then the species. An innovative, inexpensive, and practically foolproof way to grow potted plants. The Latin Name for the tomato is Lysopersicon Esculentum (eventually renamed to Solanum Lycopersicum). Perhaps to emphasize that exception, more recent botanists have backpedaled, adding esculentum (edible) to the beleaguered tomato’s name to give us Lycopersicon esculentum, or “edible wolf peach.” Unfortunately, this rear-guard action came too late to redeem the tomato for our Colonial forbears. It was not until around the 16th century that Europeans were introduced to this fruit when the early explorers set sail to discover new lands. The Tomato History has origins traced back to the early Aztecs around 700 A.D; therefore it is believed that the tomato is native to the Americas. Just to seal the tomato’s fate, all parts of the plant, with the exception of its fruit, actually are poisonous. Tournefort’s classification, far from redeeming the tomato from the taint of bad company, simply changed that company.