b'TOMATO DEEP-DIVEThe tomato is native to Tomato was first described South America. One species,in a herbal in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli as a new type Solanum lycopersicum of eggplant, brought to Italy with , was transported tored or golden colour. Mexico where it wasTen years later the tomato was grown and consumednamed pomi by Mesoamericandoro orcivilizations, who developedgoldenthe larger furrowed fruits.apple.Aztecs and otherAfter the Spanish colonization peoples in the regionof the Americas, the Spanish distributed the tomato used the fruit in theirthroughout their colonies in cooking; it was cultivatedthe Caribbean, then to the in southern Mexico andPhilippines from where it spread to Southeast Asia and probably other areas bylater the entire Asian continent. 500 BC. The exact date of domestication Cultivated tomatoes vary in size, is not known. from tomberries, about5 mm in diameter, throughcherry tomatoes, about the same12 centimetres (0.40.8 in) size as the wild tomato, up to beefsteak The word tomato comes from thetomatoes,Nahuatl word tomatl, literally 10 centimetres(4 in) or morethe swelling fruit. in diameter.20IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'