Solanum lycopersicum

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 colours such as orange, yellow, green, purple, 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

Origins and relationship to wild tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes are closely related to the wild ancestral forms of all cultivated tomatoes. Wild tomatoes (Solanum pimpinellifolium and related species) naturally produce small, cherry-sized fruits and are native to western South America, particularly the Andes region and coastal areas of Peru, Ecuador, and northern Chile. These wild species represent the genetic foundation from which all modern tomatoes, both large and small, were developed.

Domestication and spread

The tomato is thought to have been first domesticated in the Puebla-Veracruz region of Mexico, likely arriving from South America in the form of small-fruited wild or semi-domesticated varieties that resembled modern cherry tomatoes. Over thousands of years, indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica selectively bred these small tomatoes, with some lineages developed into larger varieties while others maintained the small fruit size characteristic of cherry tomatoes.