The Tomato Story

From Wikipedia: The Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, syn. Lycopersicon lycopersicum & Lycopersicon esculentum[1]) is an herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins tobacco, potatoes, aubergine (eggplants), chilli peppers, and the poisonous belladonna. It is a perennial, often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual. Typically reaching to 1-3m (3 to 9 ft) in height, it has a weak, woody stem that often vines over other plants. The leaves are 10–25 centimetres (3.9–9.8 in) long, odd pinnate, with 5–9 leaflets on petioles,[2] each leaflet up to 8 centimetres (3.1 in) long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. The flowers are 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of 3–12 together.
The tomato is native to South America and a prehistoric introduction to Central America and Southern parts of North America. Genetic evidence shows that the progenitors of tomatoes were herbaceous green plants with small green fruit with a center of diversity in the highlands of Peru. These early Solanums diversified into the ~dozen species of tomato recognized today. One species, Solanum Lycopersicum, was transported to Mexico where it was grown and consumed by prehistoric humans. The exact date of domestication is not known.