Subject: Tomato tree

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: 20 Mar 1996 22:25:35 GMT

I recently saw an ad. for the amazing New Zealand tomato tree.  Has 
anyone heard of it, or is it just a crock?

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From: [email-masked] (Eric Grunden)
Date: 30 Mar 1996 23:02:36 GMT

>anyone heard of it, or is it just a crock?
				*******

I recently toured the plant bio. greenhouses here at the Univ. of IL
and they had a tomato tree in the main atrium. It was tall, had both
tomatoes and blossoms, and the sign listed the scientific name as
Solonaceae "    " (I can't remember) so it is actually in the same
genus as tomato. I don't know if that is a "New Zealand" tomato
tree, but there is such a thing as a tomato tree and it bears
tomatoes (much to my surprise).

-- 
			*******************
The Spirit of Nature, a powerful force,
	belongs and returns to its creative source.
- Excerpted from The Collective Works of Johnny Pokerface -

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From: [email-masked] (Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr.)
Date: Mon, 01 Apr 1996 03:37:03 GMT

>anyone heard of it, or is it just a crock?

Oh, it exists, not a bad price either.  Trouble is, they sure don't
taste like tomatoes, and they do freeze out in the winter in such
climates.

I tried to find the botanical name to no avail.

I am just guessing here, but I assume it came to be, similar to the
way a bed of ivy, on occasion will form an ivy tree, and was
cultivated from there and hybridized or whatever to get the product
they are currently marketing as a tomatoe tree.

I was suckered into four of them two years ago.  They did look nice,
did bear fruit, quite a lot in fact, but as I said, they sure didn't
taste like tomatoes....

TTUL
Gary

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From: [email-masked] (mel turner)
Date: Mon, 1 Apr 1996 04:02:32

>they are currently marketing as a tomatoe tree.

No the so-called tree tomato is a distantly-related plant of the same family 
[_Cyphomandra betacea_ in the Solanaceae;  actually the latest  taxonomic 
trend is to put both the tree tomato and the true tomatoes  _Lycopersicon_ 
back into the huge  genus _Solanum_ along with the potato, eggplant, and  a 
thousand or two other species].  It is native to South America, but cultivated 
commercially in NZ;  another name that was coined for it is "tamarillo" [you 
may occasionally see them for sale in supermarkets].   An appreciation of the 
fruit might come easier if one completely forgets the idea that they are 
supposed to be anything like tomatoes.   A rank-growing, short-lived  small 
tree that doesn't tolerate frost, it might bear fruit only in the second year 
>from  seed...
mdt

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From: [email-masked] (Graeme Young)
Date: Tue, 02 Apr 96 19:13:21 GMT

>I tried to find the botanical name to no avail.
The plant given the common name of "tree tomato" is Cyphomandra betacea 
(family Solanaceas) one of 30 species from tropical America especially the 
Northern Andes and Southern Brazil. It has been in cultivation in the warmer 
areas of New Zealand for many years and is sold over the winter months as 
"tamarillo". It has a high vitamin C content and a soft dark red flesh which 
is usually scoped out of the skin and often mixed with a little sugar as it 
has a high acidity level. There are several cultivars available with various 
skin colours, fruit sizes, and acidity levels. The wild form has fruit about 
the sizeof a hens egg, but in culivation the fruit are often twice that size. 
The plant is frost tender (-2C), but easily propagated from softwood cuttings 
in autum.
Graeme Young

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From: [email-masked] (Vancouver Technical 2)
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 04:26:34 GMT

>>anyone heard of it, or is it just a crock?

I grew them from seed, and am now reproducing them by cuttings.

The name,  is Cyphomandra betacea (not sure about spelling. E mail me
at [email-masked]  and I can check in my book. 

George Matousek