Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » Vegetable Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #192164
Title: THE TAXONOMY OF TOMATOES: A REVISION OF WILD TOMATOES (SOLANUM L. SECTION LYCOPERSICON (MILL.) WETTST.) AND THEIR OUTGROUP RELATIVES (SOLANUM SECTIONS JUGLANDIFOLIUM (RYDB.) CHILD AND LYCOPERSICOIDES (CHILD) PERALTA)

Author
item PERALTA, IRIS - UNIV OF CUYO, ARGENTINA
item KNAPP, SANDRA - LONDON UNITED KINGDOM
item Spooner, David

Submitted to: Systematic Botany Monographs
Publication Type: Monograph
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/20/2007
Publication Date: 7/15/2007
Citation: Peralta, I.E., Knapp, S., Spooner, D.M. 2007. The taxonomy of tomatoes: a revision of wild tomatoes (solanum l. section lycopersicon (mill.) wettst.) and their outgroup relatives (solanum sections juglandifolium (rydb.) child and lycopersicoides (child) peralta). Systematic Botany Monographs. 84:1-186.

Interpretive Summary: Solanum section Lycopersicon (Solanaceae) includes the cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and 12 additional wild relatives, endemic to western South America from Ecuador to northern Chile, and with two endemic species in the Galápagos Islands; weedy escaped forms of Solanum lycopersicum are distributed worldwide. Sister to section Lycopersicon are two species in Solanum section Juglandifolium, distributed in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and sister to these are two species of Solanum section Lycopersicoides, distributed in southern Peru and northern Chile. The delimitation and relationships of wild tomatoes have differed widely depending upon whether morphological or biological species concepts are considered more important. Our monograph summarizes recent morphological and molecular studies of section Lycopersicon, section Juglandifolium, and section Lycopersicoides, and utilizes data from herbarium specimens and observations of germplasm accessions of all species grown in gardens. We recognize four species from the previously polymorphic S. peruvianum L. sensu lato: S. arcanum, S. corneliomulleri, S. huaylasense and S. peruvianum sensu stricto, and recognize section Lycopersicoides at sectional level for the first time. Full descriptions and synonymies (including designations of lectotypes), illustrations, distribution maps, and an extensive list of localities are provided for all of tomato and outgroup species.

Technical Abstract: The cultivated tomato arose from wild species relatives that grow in South America. Many of these wild species are used as breeding stock to improve the disease resistances and agronomic traits of the cultivated tomato. This publication is a monograph of the cultivated species and its relatives. It describes twelve species of these most immediate relatives of tomato, and four species somewhat more distantly related. We describe the overall form of all of these species, provide line drawings of their form, list their distributions, illustrate their distributions with maps, describe their habitats, provide identification aids of each species through taxonomic keys, and provide a summary of all of the literature that investigates their interrelationships.