WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Stace 4:

Solanum lycopersicum L. (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., L. lycopersicum (L.) Karsten) - Tomato.

Stems erect to decumbent or scrambling, to 2m; leaves pinnate, 20-40cm, with toothed to lobed leaflets; corolla yellow, 18-25mm across; fruit usually red, rarely yellow to orange, 2-10cm across; (2n=24). Neophyte-casual; much used as salad-fruit and vegetable and common on tips and in sewage works and waste places, grown on field scale in South England and Channel Islands; frequent throughout British Isles; Central & South America.

Key:

• Corolla yellow
• Spines 0; fruit conspicuously exposed from calyx