Cherry tomato


The cherry tomato is a type of small round tomato believed to be an intermediate genetic admixture between wild currant-type tomatoes and domesticated garden tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes range in size from a thumbtip up to the size of a golf ball, and can range from spherical to slightly oblong in shape. Although usually red, other varieties such as yellow, green, and black also exist. Those shaped like an oblong share characteristics with plum tomatoes and are known as grape tomatoes. The cherry tomato is regarded as a botanical variety of the cultivated berry, Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme.

History

The cherry tomato is believed to be the direct ancestor of modern cultivated tomatoes and is the only wild tomato found outside South America. The tomato is thought to have been first domesticated in the Puebla-Veracruz area of Mexico and to have reached this area from South America in the form of a weedy cherry tomato.
The first direct reference to the cherry tomato has to appear in 1623, in a work called Pinax theatri botanici by Swiss botanist Caspar Bauhin, which contains descriptions and classifications of approximately six
thousand species. In a section on "Solanum", Bauhin wrote of a variety called “Solanum racemosum cerasoru forma,” which translates to "Solanum full of clusters , in the form of cherries".
Cherry tomatoes have been popular in the United States since at least 1919. Recipes using cherry tomatoes can be found in articles dating back to 1967.

Cultivars

The Tomaccio tomato was developed by Nahum Kedar and Chaim Rabinovitch of the Agriculture Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on its Rehovot Campus. It is the result of a 12-year breeding program using wild Peruvian tomato species to create a sweet snack tomato with improved ripening time and shelf life.
The Super Sweet 100 is a hybrid cultivar popular in the United States resistant to both Fusarium and Verticillium wilt.
The Selke Biodynamic cherry tomato is named after Margrit Selke.
The indeterminate hybrid sungold cherry tomato is known for its vigorous early-yielding plants and colorful orange fruits.