Sixteenth-century tomatoes in Europe: who saw them, what they looked like, and where they came from.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Soon after the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the first tomatoes were presented as curiosities to the European elite and drew the attention of sixteenth-century Italian naturalists. Despite of their scientific interest in this New World crop, most Renaissance botanists did not specify where these 'golden apples' or 'pomi d'oro' came from. The debate on the first European tomatoes and their origin is often hindered by erroneous dating, botanical misidentifications and inaccessible historical sources. The discovery of a tomato specimen in the sixteenth-century 'En Tibi herbarium' kept at Leiden, the Netherlands, triggered research on its geographical provenance and morphological comparison to other tomato specimens and illustrations from the same time period.

SUBMITTER: van Andel T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8772448 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature