UoN The Hidden Half: Tomato

Tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, is a member of the nightshade family of plants which is well known for being poisonous. Luckily for all tomato lovers the fruit does not contain any poison. Tomato originated in Central and South America and when it was first grown it looked very different to modern day tomato. It is thought they were the size of cherry tomatoes and yellow. Although tomatoes are eaten as vegetables they are botanically a fruit. The world’s largest tomato plant was grown in the green houses of the Walt Disney park in Florida and could produce 32,000 golf ball size tomatos that were served in the parks restaurants.

The roots are structured around one main taproot with many secondary roots developing from this.