Tomato (plant)
Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, is a cultivated flowering plant in the nightshade family, grown worldwide for its edible fruit.
Solanum lycopersicum: The accepted scientific name for the cultivated tomato species. This is the species name for the plant cultivated as tomato.
Indeterminate growth: A growth habit in which a plant's main shoot continues extending rather than ending in a flower cluster. Many tomato cultivars keep producing stems and fruit clusters throughout the season.
Solanum pimpinellifolium: A wild tomato species with small fruits and close genetic ties to cultivated tomatoes. It is a close wild relative relevant to tomato ancestry and crop improvement.
Tomato cultivar: A cultivated tomato variety selected for traits such as fruit form, flavor, yield, or disease resistance. Cultivars let growers match plant traits to harvest methods and intended uses.
Solanaceae: A flowering-plant family that includes tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants, peppers, and tobacco. Tomato belongs to this family, whose members share several botanical traits.
Determinate growth: A growth habit in which shoots stop extending after forming a terminal flower cluster. Determinate tomatoes concentrate flowering and fruiting into a more limited period.
Mesoamerica: A historical cultural region extending across central and southern Mexico and parts of Central America. Tomato domestication is associated with Indigenous cultivation in this region.
Greenhouse tomato production: The cultivation of tomato plants in protected structures with managed temperature, light, and irrigation. Protected growing extends production and gives growers control over growing conditions.
Tomato fruit: The edible botanical berry produced by tomato plants. The plant is chiefly cultivated for this ripe fruit.
Self-pollination: Pollination in which pollen reaches a stigma of the same flower or another flower on the same plant. Tomato flowers commonly set fruit using pollen from the same plant.