''Lycopersicon'' was a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

in the

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

Solanaceae The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and or ...

(the

nightshade The Solanaceae , or nightshades, are a family (biology), family of flowering plants that ranges from Annual plant, annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal ...

s and relatives). It contained about 13

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...

in the

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

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 Solanaceae ...

'' by

Philip Miller Philip Miller FRS (1691 – 18 December 1771) was an English 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 ''The Gardeners Dicti ...

in 1754, its removal leaves the latter genus

paraphyletic In taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In ...

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

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

''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 (; ) 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 typically shared derived char ...

analysis of

DNA sequence DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. T ...

data confirms ''Lycopersicon'' as a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English ter ...

that is part of a lineage of nightshades also including the

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Uni ...

(''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 (plural: 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 ...

whose name has to be determined in accordance with the

ICBN The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN) 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 those "trad ...

.Solanaceae Source 008br>Phylogeny
Retrieved 2008-OCT-01.

Selected species

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

Solanum arcanum ''Solanum arcanum'' is a species of nightshade, commonly called the "wild tomato," endemic to Peru. Description The wild tomato is a perennial plant, woody at the base, being up to or more in diameter and up to 1m tall. Its stem is between i ...

'' Peralta (= ''Lycopersicon peruvianum'' var. ''humifusum'' C.H.Mull.) * '' Solanum chmielewskii'' (C.M.Rick, Kesicki, Fobes & M.Holle) D.M.Spooner, G.J.Anderson & R.K.Jansen * '' Solanum neorickii'' 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'' 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 is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish wor ...

'' L. –

Tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

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 bal ...

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 i ...

'' L. – Currant tomato (= ''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 ...

'' (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'' 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 co ...

'' L. –

Peruvian nightshade Peruvians ( es, peruanos) are the citizens of Peru. There were Andean and coastal ancient civilizations like Caral, which inhabited what is now Peruvian territory for several millennia before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century; Peruvian p ...

(= ''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 ...

'' 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 Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. 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 figuratively, with a broa ...

ous: * ''

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

'' (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 ''Solanum quadriloculatum'' is known under the (ambiguous) common names of "bush tomato" or (in Australia) "wild tomato ''Lycopersicon'' was a genus in the flowering plant family Solanaceae (the nightshades and relatives). It contained abou ...

'' (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'' (Wallace's nightshade) and others.

References

{{Reflist

Selected species

Other "wild tomatoes"

References

Further reading