Lycopersicon hybrid   Solanaceae (Nightshade Family)   South America   Roma VF Tomato

                                      August Photo

Plant Characteristics: Spreading, slightly pubescent annual or short-lived perennial, with a few longer glandular hairs, +/- 4 dm. tall and 1.5 m. across, herbage with a strong scent; lvs. odd-pinnate, ovate in outline, over 2 dm. long and nearly as wide; with 7 main lfts., and several smaller interposed on the stem, the longest 5-9 cm. long and 3-5 cm. wide, acuminate, margins irregular and tending to roll inwards; fls. 3-7, nodding, 1.5 cm. or more across, on jointed pedicels; fruit red, oblong in shape with a broad-cuspidate tip on some, 4-4.5 cm. in diam., 5.5-6.5 cm. long. (description mine using characteristics listed in Bailey).

Habitat:  Escape from cultivation.  Summer-fall.

Name:  Greek, lycoper-sicon, wolf peach, probably in reference to supposed poisonous qualities.  (Bailey 869).

General:  Rare in the study area, found only once and this at the upper end of Big Canyon.  I suspect that this plant may have been planted, however, there is no evidence that it has been watered.  If planted, it was done well, the plant growing at the foot of a pile of loose dirt which would soak up moisture in wet weather and also concentrate excess water at the bottom of the pile.  (my comments).    The tomato plant is called a "vine", it is  really a sprawling plant incapable of climbing, but by common usage it's a vine.  (Sunset Editors, New Western Garden Book 1984, p 486).      About a half dozen S. American soft herbs, per. and perhaps annual, two of them grown for the edible fruit; sometimes united with Solanum but differing in being always unarmed, lvs. always pinnate or pinnatifid, and particularly in the anthers which are projected into sharp or narrow sterile tips and which dehisce from top to bottom.  (Bailey 869).       A study has found the first direct evidence that the nutrient that makes tomatoes red may protect men against prostate cancer by shrinking tumors and slowing their spread.  The nutrient, lycopene, has emerged as one of the trendiest of all supplements in recent years.  Large population surveys have suggested that those who eat plenty of tomatoes, the primary source of lycopene, are less likely to get prostate cancer and some other malignancies.  To see if tomatoes are truly the reason why, researchers from the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit gave lycopene capsules to men who were about to undergo surgery to remove their cancerous prostate glands.  The study involved 33 men who were randomly assigned to take lycopene for 30 days before their prostate operations. Before surgery, the volunteers showed no obvious signs that their cancer had spread.  After surgery, the doctors found that cancer tissue was less likely to extend clear to the edges of the lycopene users' prostate glands.  And precancerous cells in their prostates were less abnormal-looking.  "The results are significant," said Dr. Frank Rauscher of the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia.  "It's remarkable that lycopene may have both therapeutic and preventative value."  (Associated Press Release, Los Angeles Times 13 April 1999. Morning Edition A 11).

Text Ref:  Bailey 869; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 834; Sunset Editors 486.

Photo Ref:  May-July 92 # 22,23.

Genus identity: by R. De Ruff.

First Found:  June 1992.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 439.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 11/8/04.  

                           June Photo                                                                            August Photo