| The tomato (Latin. Solanum lycopersicum) is a plant, a sort of nightshade or a long-term grass. It is cultivated as vegetable culture. The tomato fruits are known under the name tomatoes.
The name "a tomato" occurs from the Italian word "pomo d'oro" (a gold apple). The true name was the Aztecs - matl, Frenchmen have altered it in French to the word "tomate" (tomato).
The native land in South America is where till now there are wild and semi-cultural forms of a tomato. In the middle of the 16th century the tomato went to Spain, Portugal, and then to Italy, France and other European countries, and in the 18th century, to Russia, where in the beginning it was cultivated as an ornamental plant. The vegetable food culture has been recognized thanks to the Russian scientist-agriculturist A.T. Bolotov (1738-1833).
The tomato is one of the most popular cultures thanks to the valuable nutritious and dietary qualities, the big variety of species, and the high responsiveness on applied receptions of cultivation. It cultivates in the open ground, under film shelters, in hothouses, hotbeds, on balconies, loggias and even in rooms on windowsills.
The structure of tomatoes fruit
The mature fruits of a tomato are rich with sugar and vitamin C, contain fibers, starch, organic acids, cellulose, pectinaceous substances, salts of calcium, sodium, magnesium, chlorine, phosphorus, iron, sulphur, silicon, iodine, and also carotids, lycopene (it defines the red color of the fruit), group B vitamins, nicotine and folic acids and vitamin K.
Fresh tomatoes and tomato juice are useful for cardiovascular diseases, gastritis with the lowered acidity, general memory weakening and anemia. Apply a tomato and use it as a purgative. The pulp of red tomatoes can be put onto varicose veins (bandage for the night daily or in day within a month).
The tomato has a developed root system of the rod type. Roots are branched out, grow and form quickly. Plant them in the earth at a big depth (at non-seedling to culture to 1 m and more), extending in diameter on 1.5 - 2.5m. In the presence of moisture and food additional roots can be formed on any part of the stalk, therefore the tomato can be have multiple copies made not only of the seeds, but also of the shanks and lateral runaways (stepsons). Put it in water and they form more roots in a few days form the roots.
A tomato's stalk is upright or procumbent, branching; the height is from 30 cm to 2m or more. The leaves are odd-pinnate, dissected in large shares, sometimes like the potato. The flowers are small, ordinary-looking, in yellow of various shades and are collected in a brush. A tomato is a self-pollinator: in one flower there are male and female bodies.
The fruit of tomatoes are juicy multi-camerate berries of various forms (from round to cylindrical; they can be small (a weight to 50, average (51-100) and large (from above 100г, sometimes to 800г or more). The coloring of the fruits can be in from light pink to bright red and crimson, from white, light green, light yellow to golden yellow.
The seeds are small, flat, pointed at the base, it is light or dark yellow, and usually downy owing to the grey shade they have. They keep their germinating ability for 6-8 years.
Under favorable temperature conditions and the presence of moisture seeds sprout in 3-4 days. The first true blade appears usually in 6-10 days after the shoots, in 3-4 the leaves - in 5-6 days and each new sheet is formed in 3-5 days. The duration of the period from shooting before the flowering of a plant is 50-70 days, from flowering to the maturing of the fruit of 45-60 days.
On a bush structure the thickness of a stalk and the character of the leaves they are distinguished by 3 versions of tomatoes: non standard (no stem), standard (stem) and potato.
Tomatoes - vegetables fruit or berries?
The distinction between the scientific and culinary notion about fruits, berries, fruit, vegetables in case of a tomato (as well as of some other plants, for example, cucumbers) makes some confusion. From the botany point of view tomatoes (tomato fruits) are multi-camerae paracarpous berries. In the English language there is no difference between those two terms (tomatoes and tomato fruits). In 1893 the Supreme Court of the USA unanimously recognized, that in spite of the fact that botanists consider tomatoes as fruits in case of the levy custom charges it is necessary to consider tomatoes as vegetables. It is not known whether the law of that time had an influence on the decision of the judges: according to this law, vegetables were custom goods and fruits were not custom goods. In 2001 the European Community has decided that tomatoes are not vegetables but fruits.
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Shocking news this week - the salmonella outbreaks in 17 states were
caused by tomatoes containing the salmonella strain. "Red alert"
tomato paranoia is paralyzing tomato industry in Florida and other
states as tomatoes are rapidly removed from the store shelves and from
the restaurant menus. The biggest fast food chains and groceries also
voluntarily removed got rid of raw tomatoes, except for the three
kinds that FDA assured to be still safe to eat - cherry tomatoes,
grape tomatoes and tomatoes grown on a vine. Salmonella causes fever,
diarrhea and abdominal cramps hours after infection and lasts up to
seven days, often causing long-term complications.
