''Lycopersicon'' was a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

in the

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Solanaceae Solanaceae (), commonly known as the nightshades, is a family of flowering plants in the order Solanales. It contains approximately 2,700 species, several of which are used as agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants. Many me ...

(the

nightshade Solanaceae (), commonly known as the nightshades, is a family of flowering plants in the order Solanales. It contains approximately 2,700 species, several of which are used as agricultural crops, medicinal plants, and ornamental plants. Many me ...

s and relatives). It contained about 13

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in the

tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

group of nightshades. First removed from the genus ''

Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solana ...

'' by

Philip Miller Philip Miller Royal Society, FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English botany, botanist and gardener of Scottish descent. Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden for nearly 50 years from 1722, and wrote the highly popular ...

in 1754, its removal leaves the latter genus

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

, so modern botanists generally accept the names in ''Solanum''. The name ''Lycopersicon'' (from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''λυκοπέρσικον'' meaning "wolf peach") is still used by gardeners, farmers, and seed companies. Collectively, the species in this group apart from the common cultivated plant are called wild tomatoes.

Cladistic Cladistics ( ; from Ancient Greek 'branch') is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is ...

analysis of

DNA sequence A nucleic acid sequence is a succession of bases within the nucleotides forming alleles within a DNA (using GACT) or RNA (GACU) molecule. This succession is denoted by a series of a set of five different letters that indicate the order of the nu ...

data confirms ''Lycopersicon'' as a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

that is part of a lineage of nightshades also including the

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

(''S. tuberosum''). If it is desired to continue use of ''Lycopersicon'', it can be held as a

section Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

inside the potato-tomato

subgenus In biology, a subgenus ( subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between the ge ...

whose name has to be determined in accordance with the

ICBN The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

.Solanaceae Source

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * "008", a fictional 00 Agent In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (pronounced "Double O") is a field agent who ho ...

br>Phylogeny
Retrieved 2008-OCT-01.

Selected species

Former

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

s are cited if they have significantly changed when moving to ''Solanum'', are: Arcanum group * ''

Solanum arcanum ''Solanum arcanum'' is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae in section ''Lycopersicon'', the tomatoes, Endemism, endemic to Peru. Description ''Solanum arcanum'' is a perennial Inflorescences are between in siz ...

'' Peralta (= ''Lycopersicon peruvianum'' var. ''humifusum'' C.H.Mull.) * ''

Solanum chmielewskii ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

'' (C.M.Rick, Kesicki, Fobes & M.Holle) D.M.Spooner, G.J.Anderson & R.K.Jansen * ''

Solanum neorickii ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

'' D.M.Spooner, G.J.Anderson & R.K.Jansen (= ''Lycopersicon parviflorum'' C.M.Rick, Kesicki, Fobes & M.Holle) Lycopersicon group * '' Solanum cheesmaniae'' (L.Riley) Fosberg (= ''Lycopersicon peruvianum'' var. ''parviflorum'' Hook.f.) * ''

Solanum galapagense ''Solanum galapagense'' is a wild tomato in the family Solanaceae section ''Lycopersicon'' and is one of two tomato species endemic to the Galápagos Islands, 500 miles west of Ecuador. It was at these islands where Charles Darwin noted the struc ...

'' S.C.Darwin & Peralta (= ''Lycopersicon cheesmaniae'' f. ''minor'' (Hook.f.) C.H.Mull., ''L. cheesmaniae'' var. ''minor'' (Hook.f.) D.M.Porter, ''L. esculentum'' var. ''minor'' Hook.f.) * ''

Solanum lycopersicum The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from and was d ...

'' L. –

Tomato The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible Berry (botany), berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originate ...

cherry tomato The cherry tomato is a type of small round tomato believed to be an intermediate genetic admixture between Solanum pimpinellifolium, wild currant-type tomatoes and domesticated garden tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes range in size from a thumbtip up ...

etc. (= ''Lycopersicon cerasiforme'', ''L. lycopersicum'' and many others) * Tomato_in_3d

* ''

Solanum pimpinellifolium ''Solanum pimpinellifolium'', commonly known as the currant tomato or pimp, is a wild species of tomato native to Ecuador and Peru but naturalized elsewhere, such as the Galápagos Islands. Its small fruits are edible, and it is commonly grown in ...

'' L. –

Currant tomato ''Solanum pimpinellifolium'', commonly known as the currant tomato or pimp, is a wild species of tomato native to Ecuador and Peru but Introduced species, naturalized elsewhere, such as the Galápagos Islands. Its small fruits are edible, and it ...

(= ''Lycopersicon esculentum'' ssp. ''intermedium'' Luckwill, ''L. esculentum'' ssp. ''pimpinellifolium'' (L.) Brezhnev in Zhukovskii, ''L. esculentum'' var. ''racemigerum'' (Lange) Brezhnev in Zhukovskii, ''L. pissisi'' Phil., ''L. racemiforme'' Lange, ''L. racemigerum'' Lange) Tomato flower and young fruit

Eriopersicon group * ''

Solanum chilense ''Solanum chilense'' is a plant species from the "tomato" subgenus ''Lycopersicon'' within the nightshade genus ''Solanum''. Description ''Solanum chilense'' is a robust, perennial, herbaceous plant that at first grows erect, later lying. It r ...

'' (Dunal) Reiche (= ''Lycopersicon atacamense'' Phil., ''L. bipinnatifidum'' Phil., ''L. peruvianum'' ssp. ''puberulum'' (Phil.) Luckwill, ''L. puberulum'' Phil.) * ''

Solanum corneliomulleri ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae ...

'' J.F.Macbr. (= ''Lycopersicon glandulosum'' C.H.Mull.) * ''

Solanum habrochaites ''Solanum habrochaites'' (syn. ''Lycopersicon hirsutum''), the hairy tomato, is a species of flowering plant in the family Solanaceae, native to Ecuador and Peru. It is considered to be one of the most important sources of genetic variation for c ...

'' S.Knapp & D.M.Spooner (= ''Lycopersicon agrimoniifolium'' Dunal in DC., ''L. hirsutum'' Dunal) * ''

Solanum huaylasense ''Solanum huaylasense'' is a species of plant (wild tomato) in the family Solanaceae. It is endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or ot ...

'' Peralta * ''

Solanum peruvianum ''Solanum peruvianum'' (syn. ''Lycopersicon peruvianum'') is a species of wild tomato in the family Solanaceae. It is native to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, Peru, and northern Chile, and has been introduced to California. Some authorities con ...

'' L. – Peruvian nightshade (= ''Lycopersicon commutatum'' (Spreng.) Roem. & Schult., ''L. dentatum'' Dunal, ''L. regulare'' Dunal) Neolycopersicon group * ''

Solanum pennellii ''Solanum pennellii'' (syn. ''Lycopersicon pennellii'') is a species of wild tomato in the family Solanaceae. It is native to the Galápagos Islands, Peru, and northern Chile. It is being extensively studied for its drought resistance and other t ...

'' Correll

Other "wild tomatoes"

Colloquially, wild tomato is used for several unrelated ''Solanum'' species with tomato-like fruit or leaves. The term is inaccurate and may be dangerous, as some of these species may be fatally

poison A poison is any chemical substance that is harmful or lethal to living organisms. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figurati ...

ous: * ''

Physalis angulata ''Physalis angulata'' is an erect herbaceous annual plant belonging to the nightshade family Solanaceae. Its leaves are dark green and roughly oval, often with tooth shapes around the edge. The flowers are five-sided and pale yellow; the yell ...

'' (Cut-leaved groundcherry) * ''

Solanum carolinense ''Solanum carolinense'', the Carolina horsenettle, is not a true nettle, but a member of the Solanaceae, or nightshade family. It is a perennial herbaceous plant, native to the southeastern United States, though its range has expanded throughou ...

'' (Carolina horsenettle) * '' Solanum quadriloculatum'' (a "

bush tomato Bush tomatoes are the fruit or entire plants of certain nightshade (''Solanum'') species native to the more arid parts of Australia. While they are quite closely related to tomatoes (''Solanum lycopersicum''), they might be even closer relatives ...

" of Australia) * ''

Solanum wallacei ''Solanum wallacei'', also known as Catalina nightshade, Wallace's nightshade, Northern island nightshade, or wild tomato, is a perennial plant that produces purple flowers, but otherwise resembles a tomato plant. The foliage and purple-black ber ...

'' (Wallace's nightshade) and others.

References

{{Reflist

Selected species

Other "wild tomatoes"

References

Further reading