Silene dioica is native to northern and central Europe  and is locally abundant throughout the British Isles. It is generally common in Northern Ireland, but rare elsewhere in Ireland. The plant is common on the Isle of Man where it is known as "blaa ny ferrishyn" or "fairy flower", and has a local taboo against picking it.
Red campion grows in roadsides, woodlands, and rocky slopes.  It prefers to grow on damp, non-acid soils.
Plants of Silene latifolia × Silene dioica = Silene × hampeana that are fertile hybrids with the closely related white campion (Silene latifolia) are common in some areas. They may have paler pink flowers and be intermediate between the two species in other characters.


The flowers of red-campion along with a number of other Caryophyllaceae members, are very susceptible to a smut (fungus) infection. In this case by Microbotryum silenes-dioicae known as anther-smut which appears as a mass of brown spores in the mouth of the flower where the anthers would normally be.


This plant is used as an ornamental perennial flower for the perennial border.  One particularly notable variety is a hot pink, double flowered variety with deep green leaves called 'Firefly'.
The nectar of the flowers is utilised by bumblebees and butterflies, and several species of moth feed on the foliage.


Silene latifolia subsp. alba (formerly Melandrium album), the white campion is a dioecious flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native to most of Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is a herbaceous annual, occasionally biennial or a short-lived perennial plant, growing to between 40–80 centimetres tall. It is also known in the US as bladder campion but should not be confused with Silene vulgaris, which is more generally called bladder campion.
The appearance depends on the age of the plant; when young they form a basal rosette of oval to lanceolate leaves 4–10 cm long, and when they get older, forked stems grow from these, with leaves in opposite pairs. The flowers grow in clusters at the tops of the stems, 2.5–3 cm diameter, with a distinctive inflated calyx and five white petals, each petal deeply notched; flowering lasts from late spring to early autumn. The entire plant is densely hairy. Occasional plants with pink flowers are usually hybrids with red campion (Silene dioica).


White campion grows in most open habitats, particularly wasteland and fields, most commonly on neutral to alkaline soils. Despite the wide array of conditions in which campion can thrive, it prefers sunny areas that have rich and well-drained soil. An example ecoregion of occurrence is in the Sarmatic mixed forests.
It is also named the Grave Flower or Flower of the Dead in parts of England as they are seen often growing on gravesites and around tombstones.
It is naturalised in North America, being found in most of the United States, the greatest concentrations of the plant can be found in the north-central and northeastern sections of the country. S. latifolia is thought to have arrived in North America as a component of ship ballast.


In S. latifolia, outbred male offspring were found to sire significantly more progeny than inbred male offspring. This study indicated the occurrence of inbreeding depression in male plants under natural conditions.  In female plants, inbreeding depression significantly affects vegetative growth, age at first flowering and total fitness.
Post-pollination selection occurs in S. latifolia.  After multiple-donor pollination, it was found that pollen or embryo selection likely reduces the occurrence of inbred progeny.


The Ojibwa use an infusion of the alba subspecies as a medicine.


Silene latifolia is afflicted by the fungal pathogen Microbotryum violaceum, which acts as a sterilizing sexually transmitted infection in this species.


Silene nutans is a flowering plant in the genus Silene, most commonly known as Nottingham catchfly.


Silene nutans is a diploid, mainly outcrossing, herbaceous, perennial plant.
It grows up to 25–80 centimetres (10–31 in) tall, from a branching, woody stock with a thick taproot. The lower leaves are up to 75 millimetres (3 in) long, spathulate and have a long stalk, while leaves higher on the plant are lanceolate, subsessile and acute; all the leaves are covered in soft hairs. The flowers are 18 millimetres (0.7 in) wide, 12 millimetres (0.5 in) long, and drooping, on short, viscid stalks. The petals are white or pinkish and divided into two narrow lobes. Each flower remains open for three nights as a means of preventing self-fertilisation; the flower reveals one whorl of stamens on the first night, the second whorl of stamens on the second night, and the three styles on the third night. The seeds are 10–22 millimetres (0.4–0.9 in) wide and kidney-shaped.


Silene nutans is widespread across Europe, from southern Spain and Italy north to the British Isles and Scandinavia, and is also found across large parts of Asia. It has been introduced to North America, where it is known as the Eurasian catchfly. It is found in the U.S. states of Michigan, Ohio, New York, Vermont and Maine.
Silene nutans can sometimes be found in the very widespread MG1 (Arrhenatherum elatius grassland) community of the British National Vegetation Classification, and thus can be found where Arrhenatherum elatius (false oat grass) or Dactylis glomerata (cocksfoot) occur.


Silene nutans is a steppe species across most of its range. At the periphery of its distribution, it has a patchy distribution in xeric habitats, such as open grasslands and on rock outcrops at forest margins, on both acidic and alkaline substrates (pH 3.8–8.0). In the far north of its range, S. nutans is characteristic of maritime cliffs.
Silene nutans flowers during the night, and produces a strong floral scent to attract its pollinators, which are mostly night-flying moths. Chemical compounds in the scent include benzyl acetate and benzaldehyde.
Silene nutans is the host plant for the leaf mining moth Coleophora galbulipennella.


The common name Nottingham catchfly commemorates the former occurrence of S. nutans on the walls of Nottingham Castle, and the species was chosen to represent the unitary authority of Nottingham as its county flower. Despite this association, Nottingham catchflies no longer occur in either the city of Nottingham or the wider county of Nottinghamshire.
Nottingham Castle Trust asked volunteers to grow the plant from seeds supplied to donate the successful plants back to the City to commemorate the re-opening of the renovation of Nottingham Castle.


Silene regia is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name royal catchfly. It is native to the central United States. A  perennial herb, it grows from a fleshy taproot and has several erect stems growing up to 1.6 meters tall. The leaves are lance-shaped to oval and up to 12 centimeters long, becoming smaller farther up the stem. The inflorescence is an array of many flowers at the top of the stem. The elongate tubular calyx of sepals is up to 2.5 centimeters long and has 10 longitudinal veins. The lobes of the bright red corolla are 1 to 2 centimeters long.
The flowers are pollinated by the ruby-throated hummingbird. This plant is similar to the other two red-flowered eastern North American Silene, S. virginica and S. rotundifolia.
This plant is native to the tallgrass prairie of the American Midwest. It occurs in grassland and woodland. It has been found on roadsides and outcrops, and in pastures. It is found in open, sunny spots. It has been found in the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It has been extirpated from Kansas and Tennessee and it is rare throughout most of the rest of its range. It may be most prevalent in Missouri.
The main threat to the species is the loss of habitat to agricultural use. Its native prairie habitat has been reduced so that now the plant mainly grows on roadsides and rights-of-way. It is also threatened by fire suppression, which eliminates the normal fire regime that keeps the habitat open and sunny. Larger and woody vegetation moves into the habitat when fire is reduced, and the Silene cannot compete.


Silene stellata, known by the common names starry campion and widow's frill, is a perennial summer flowering forb with white flowers, which is native to the Eastern United States. It grows in habitats such as forests, river flats, and tall grass prairies.


Silene uniflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name sea campion.


Silene uniflora is a herbaceous perennial plant, similar in appearance to the bladder campion (Silene vulgaris) but with flowers generally solitary. It is generally prostrate, mat-forming. The leaves are linear, grey-green glabrous and glaucous in opposite and decussate pairs, the flowers white with five deeply notched petals, the 5 sepals fused and inflated to form a bladder.


Silene uniflora is a maritime species, almost confined to Iceland, the Atlantic and Baltic Sea coasts of western Europe up to the Kola Peninsula in European Russia, and the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores. In Britain it also occurs rarely in the mountains. It has been introduced to Argentina and New Zealand.


Silene vulgaris, the bladder campion or maidenstears, is a plant species of the genus Silene of the family Caryophyllaceae. It is native to Europe, where in some parts it is eaten, but is also widespread in North America, where it is a common wildflower in meadows, open woods, and fields.


The young shoots and the leaves may be used as food in some countries of the Mediterranean region. The tender leaves may be eaten raw in salads. The older leaves are usually eaten boiled or fried, sauteed with garlic as well as in omelettes.


In Crete it is called agriopapoula (αγριοπάπουλα) and the locals eat its leaves and tender shoots browned in olive oil.
In Cyprus it is very widely eaten, so much that it has, in recent years, come back into being cultivated and sold in shops in bunches. Two of the common Cypriot names are strouthouthkia (στρουθούθκια; [stru'θuθca]) and tsakrithkia (τσακρίδκια; [t͡sa'kriðca]).


In Italy the leaves of this plant may be used also as an ingredient in risotto. It is commonly known as sculpit, stridolo, or by the obsolete scientific name Silene inflata, as well as s-ciopetin, or grixol in Veneto, and nenkuz, or sclopit in Friuli and cojet in Piedmont.


Formerly in La Mancha region of Spain, where Silene vulgaris leaves are valued as a green vegetable, there were people known as "collejeros" who picked these plants and sold them. Leaves are small and narrow, so it takes many plants to obtain a sizeable amount.
In La Mancha the Silene vulgaris leaves, locally known as "collejas", were mainly used to prepare a dish called gazpacho viudo (widower gazpacho). The ingredients were flatbread known as tortas de gazpacho and a stew prepared with Silene vulgaris leaves. Other dishes prepared with these leaves in Spain include "potaje de garbanzos y collejas", "huevos revueltos con collejas" and "arroz con collejas".


Silphium integrifolium is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Its common names include rosinweed, whole-leaf rosinweed, entire-leaf rosinweed, prairie rosinweed, and silflower. It is native to eastern North America, including Ontario in Canada and the eastern and central United States as far west as New Mexico.


This species is a perennial herb growing from a fibrous root system and producing stems up to 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) tall. It can form a large clump of up to 100 stems. The stems are hairless to slightly rough-haired, and sometimes waxy in texture. The leaves are stemless and oppositely arranged on the stems. The basal leaves are lost by maturity. The leaf blades are lance-shaped to ovate, smooth-edged or toothed, hairless to rough-haired, and up to about 23 cm (9 in) long. The inflorescence holds one to 15 flower heads. The head is lined with 2 or 3 rows of phyllaries which are hairless or rough and sometimes glandular, and have rounded bases and pointed tips. The head has up to 36 yellow ray florets and many yellow disc florets. The fruit has a short pappus.
There are two varieties of the species:
S. integifolium var. integrifolium – 40 to 200 cm (1 ft 4 in to 6 ft 7 in) in height
S. integifolium var. laeve – generally 100 to 150 cm (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 11 in) tall, with more florets and hairless leaves


The foliage of the plant is eaten by herbivores such as the white-tailed deer and the blister beetle Epicauta fabricius. Plants have also been noted to lose approximately 17% of their fruits to lepidopteran larvae. The most common herbivorous insect on this species is the gall wasp Antistrophus silphii. The wasp injects its eggs into the apical meristem of the plant, and as its larvae develop, a spherical gall up to 4 cm (1+1⁄2 in) wide forms in the meristem. This stops the shoot from growing. Up to 30 larvae overwinter in each gall, pupate, and emerge as adult wasps the following season. It is reported to be a host and nectar plant for many species of bees, butterflies, and moths.


The plant had uses among Native American peoples. The Meskwaki, for example,
used the roots to treat pain from injuries.
This species is cultivated for use in gardens. Compared to other Silphium species, it is shorter, less likely to topple over, and faster from seed to flower. While it looks similar to sunflowers (Helianthus), it is more manageable than most perennial sunflowers because it spreads more slowly, and it is not known to be allelopathic.
Researchers at the Land Institute, with a number of collaborating institutions, have initiated a project to domesticate this species for use as an oilseed crop. It also is under consideration as a good companion plant among solar panels.


Silphium terebinthinaceum is a member of the Asteraceae, a family that includes sunflowers, commonly referred to as prairie dock or prairie rosinweed. "Rosinweed" became one of the plant's common names due to the fact that upon injury, resin flows from the wound, giving the plant a sweet smell. Tea brewed from the roots of the prairie dock have a variety of medical applications in Native American culture. The smoke from this plant has also been used as a treatment for congestion and rheumatism.


Silphium terebinthinaceum is an herbaceous perennial growing 3 to 10 feet (1 to 3 m) tall. Prairie dock produces small yellow flowers about 2–2+1⁄2 inches (5–6 cm) in diameter in the summer. The leaves are rough-textured, spade-shaped, and oriented vertically and in a north-south direction, providing special adaptations for survival in the prairie climate. One study found that the majority of prairie dock's leaves were oriented within 15° of North as well as 60° away from the horizontal. The combination of north-south and vertical arrangement seems to provide a mechanism for maintaining lower leaf temperatures at midday, thus conserving water. Additionally, this unique trait grants the plant better access to sunlight for photosynthesis, and consequently provides a more efficient method of producing its carbon resource. This dicot also has a characteristically large taproot able to penetrate to depths of at least 14 feet (4 m) in search of the water table.


Silphium terebinthinaceum is native to most of Illinois, northwestern Indiana, southern parts of Michigan, southern parts of Wisconsin, and parts of Missouri. The habitats of S. terebinthinaceum include black soil prairies as well as gravel, shrub, and hill prairies. It also prefers to grow alongside roads and railroads.


Silphium terebinthinaceum can survive destructive events such as grazing and soil degradation because of its ability to produce new above-ground shoots. This plant is also well adapted to obtain and hold onto water due to its characteristically large taproot and large, particularly oriented leaves. Native bees nest beneath or within these plants or use elements of the plants for their nests. Consequently, they are thought to be an important species for attracting bees for pollination in the area. Prairie dock is one of the few species that successfully persists on land that has been converted from prairie to railway.


Like Silphium perfoliatum (cup plant), S. terebinthinaceum is used as a tea to relieve lung bleeding, to minimize menstruation bleeding, and as an emetic by Native Americans. Other root tea uses include a treatment for liver issues, fever, and enlarged spleen. The smoke from this plant is used as a treatment for nerve pain, along with relieving congestion and rheumatism. However, this plant is considered potentially toxic.


Jojoba (/həˈhoʊbə/ (listen); botanical name: Simmondsia chinensis) – also commonly called  goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box bush – is native to the Southwestern United States. Simmondsia chinensis is the sole species of the family Simmondsiaceae, placed in the order Caryophyllales.
Jojoba is grown commercially to produce jojoba oil, a liquid wax ester extracted from its seed.


The plant is a native shrub of the Sonoran Desert, Colorado Desert, Baja California Desert, and California chaparral and woodlands habitats in the Peninsular Ranges and San Jacinto Mountains. It is found in southern California, Arizona, and Utah (U.S.), and Baja California state (Mexico).
Jojoba is endemic to North America, and occupies an area of approximately 260,000 square kilometers (100,000 sq mi) between latitudes 25° and 31° North and between longitudes 109° and 117° West.


Simmondsia chinensis, or jojoba, typically grows to 1–2 meters (3.3–6.6 ft) tall, with a broad, dense crown, but there have been reports of plants as tall as 3 meters (9.8 ft).
The leaves are opposite, ovalish in shape, 2–4 centimeters (0.79–1.57 in) long and 1.5–3 centimeters (0.59–1.18 in) broad, thick, waxy, and glaucous gray-green in color.
The flowers are small and greenish-yellow, with 5–6 sepals and no petals. The plant typically blooms from March to May.


Each plant is dioecious, with hermaphrodites being extremely rare. The fruit is an acorn-shaped ovoid, three-angled capsule 1–2 centimeters (0.39–0.79 in) long, partly enclosed at the base by the sepals. The mature seed is a hard oval that is dark brown and contains an oil (liquid wax) content of approximately 54%. An average-sized bush produces 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of pollen, to which few humans are allergic.
The female plants produce seed from flowers pollinated by the male plants. Jojoba leaves have an aerodynamic shape, creating a spiral effect, which brings wind-borne pollen from the male flower to the female flower. In the Northern Hemisphere, pollination occurs during February and March. In the Southern Hemisphere, pollination occurs during August and September.
Somatic cells of jojoba are tetraploid; the number of chromosomes is 2n = 4x = 52.


The jojoba genome was sequenced in 2020 and reported to be 887-Mb, consisting of 26 chromosomes (2n = 26), and is predicted to have 23,490 protein-coding genes.


Despite its scientific name Simmondsia chinensis, the plant is not native to China. The botanist Johann Link originally named the species Buxus chinensis, after misreading a collection label "Calif", referring to California, as "China".  Jojoba was collected again in 1836 by Thomas Nuttall who described it as a new genus and species in 1844, naming it Simmondsia californica, but priority rules require that the original specific epithet be used.
The common name "jojoba" originated from O'odham name Hohowi. The common name should not be confused with the similarly written jujube (Ziziphus zizyphus), an unrelated plant species, which is commonly grown in China.


Jojoba foliage provides year-round food for many animals, including deer, javelina, bighorn sheep, and livestock. Its nuts are eaten by squirrels, rabbits, other rodents, and larger birds.
Only Bailey's pocket mouse, however, is known to be able to digest the wax found inside the jojoba nut. In large quantities, jojoba seed meal is toxic to many mammals. Later this effect was found to be due to simmondsin, which inhibits hunger.  The indigestible wax acts as a laxative in humans.


Native Americans first made use of jojoba. During the early 18th century  Jesuit missionaries on the Baja California Peninsula observed indigenous peoples heating jojoba seeds to soften them. They then used a mortar and pestle to create a salve or buttery substance. The latter was applied to the skin and hair to heal and condition. The O'odham people of the Sonoran Desert treated burns with an antioxidant salve made from a paste of the jojoba nut.
Native Americans also used the salve to soften and preserve animal hides. Pregnant people ate jojoba seeds, believing they assisted during childbirth. Hunters and raiders ate jojoba on the trail to keep hunger at bay.
The Seri, who utilize nearly every edible plant in their domain, do not regard the beans as real food and in the past ate it only in emergencies.


Jojoba is grown for the liquid wax, commonly called jojoba oil, in its seeds. The oil is rare in that it is an extremely long (C36–C46) straight-chain wax ester and not a triglyceride, making jojoba and its derivative jojoba esters more similar to whale oil than to traditional vegetable oils. Jojoba oil has also been discussed as a possible biodiesel fuel, but it cannot be cultivated on a scale to compete with traditional fossil fuels, so its use is restricted to personal care products.


Plantations of jojoba have been established in a number of desert and semi-desert areas, predominantly in Argentina, Australia, Israel, Mexico, Peru and the United States. It is currently the Sonoran Desert's second most economically valuable native plant (overshadowed only by Washingtonia filifera—California fan palms, used as ornamental trees).
Jojoba prefers light, coarsely textured soils. Good drainage and water penetration is necessary. It tolerates salinity and nutrient-poor soils. Soil pH should be between 5 and 8. High temperatures are tolerated by jojoba, but frost can damage or kill plants.   Requirements are minimal, so jojoba plants do not need intensive cultivation. Weed problems only occur during the first two years after planting and there is little damage by insects. Supplemental irrigation could maximize production where rainfall is less than 400 mm. There is no need for high fertilisation, but, especially in the first year, nitrogen increases growth. Jojoba is normally harvested by hand because seeds do not all mature in the same time. Yield is around 3.5 t/ha depending on the age of the plantation.
Selective breeding is developing plants that produce more beans with higher wax content, as well as other characteristics that will facilitate harvesting.
Its ability to withstand high salinity (up to 12 dS m⁻¹ at pH 9) and the high value of jojoba products make jojoba an interesting plant for the use of desertification control. It has been used to combat and prevent desertification in the Thar Desert in India.


Sinapis arvensis, the charlock mustard, field mustard, wild mustard or charlock, is an annual or winter annual plant of the genus Sinapis in the family Brassicaceae. It is found in the fields of North Africa, Asia and Europe. Pieris rapae, the small white butterfly, and Pieris napi, the green veined white butterfly are significant consumers of charlock during their larval stages.


Sinapis arvensis  reaches on average 20–80 centimetres (7.9–31.5 in) of height, but under optimal conditions can exceed one metre. The stems are erect, branched and striated, with coarse spreading hairs especially near the base. The leaves are petiolate (stalked) with a length of 1–4 centimetres (0.39–1.57 in). The basal leaves are oblong, oval, lanceolate, lyrate, pinnatifid to dentate, 4–18 centimetres (1.6–7.1 in) long, 2–5 centimetres (0.79–1.97 in) wide. The cauline leaves are much reduced and are short petiolate to sessile but not auriculate-clasping. It blooms from May to September, or May to August, in the UK. The inflorescence is a raceme made up of yellow flowers having four petals with spreading sepals. The fruit is a silique 3–5 cm long with a beak 1–2 cm long that is flattened-quadrangular. The valves of the silique are glabrous or rarely bristly, three to five nerved. The seeds are dark red or brown, smooth 1-1.5 mm in diameter.


It contains chemicals of the class glucosinolates, including sinalbin. The seeds contain a plant hormone, Gibberellic acid, which effects the dormancy of the seeds.


It was formerly described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his seminal publication 'Species Plantarum' on page 668 in 1753.
It is commonly known as charlock mustard, field mustard, wild mustard, or charlock.


A native of the Mediterranean basin, from temperate regions of North Africa, Europe and parts of Asia. It has also become naturalised throughout much of North America, South America, Australia, Japan and South Africa.


It is found in North Africa, within Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Within Asia, it is found in Arabian Peninsula (in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, China, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Siberia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It is also found in tropical Pakistan. In eastern Europe, it is found within Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine. In middle Europe, it is in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. In northern Europe, in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In southeastern Europe, within Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Also in southwestern Europe, it is found in France, Portugal and Spain.


It grows in the plains and mountains, in pastures, fields, roadsides, waste places (such as railways, tips, and waste ground), and ruins, but mainly in cultivated places. It prefers calcareous soils in sunny places, at an altitude of 0–1,400 metres (0–4,593 ft) above sea level.


The flowers are pollinated by various bees like Andrena agilissima and flies (entomophily). Sinapis arvensis is the host plant of the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera, such as the small white, Pieris rapae. The seeds are toxic to most animals, except birds,  and can cause gastrointestinal problems, especially if consumed in large quantities.
It is a highly invasive species in states such as California.


The leaves of wild mustard are edible at the juvenile stage of the plant; they are usually boiled, such as in 18th century, in Dublin, where it was sold in the streets. During the Great Famine of Ireland, wild mustard was a common famine food, even though it often caused stomach upset. Once the seeds are ground, they produce a kind of mustard.
A type of oil can be extracted from the seed which has been used for lubricating machinery.


Siona lineata, the black-veined moth, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in his 1763 Entomologia Carniolica.


This rather common species can be found throughout Europe. It is quite rare in the United Kingdom. It is also present in the Amur and Ussuri Regions, southern Siberia, central Asia, Kazakhstan, Caucasus, Asia Minor and Russia.


These moths inhabit limestone and chalk grassland, rough downland, open woodlands, pastures and grassy areas.


The wingspan is 35–40 mm.  Wings are white or cream coloured with dusky veins in the upperside and black or dark brown veins on the underside. The underside of the wings usually shows also a blackish transverse stripe beyond the middle, very faint in the hindwings. Fresh butterflies are usually cream coloured, but as they get older, the wings are becoming whiter. With the disappearance of the scales the black veins on the undersides become increasingly visible on the uppersides through the wings.
The head is small, with large and globose lateral eyes. Legs are long and slender. The males have a long slender abdomen with a curved upward end, while in the females the abdomen is stouter and  not curved. The females are also smaller and with more angular wings. In the females the abdomen has three longitudinal black lines.


The moth flies during the day in one generation from the beginning of May to the end of June . The caterpillar feeds on various herbs, (Origanum majorana, Dactylis glomerata, Hypericum maculatum, Vicia species, Galium verum, Solidago virgaurea, Achillea millefolium, Tanacetum vulgare), and woody plants (Salix aurita, Viburnum opulus). The species overwinters as half-grown caterpillar and then pupates in a cocoon attached to a grass blade, or a plant stem.


Siproeta epaphus, the rusty-tipped page or brown siproeta, is a New World butterfly that lives all year in tropical habitats. It has large wings, averaging 7.0–7.5 cm (2.8–3.0 in), that are black in the inner portion of the top surface and brown throughout the underside. Both surfaces have a bold white transverse stripe continuing across both wings. The outer portion of the forewings, beyond the white stripe, is rusty orange in the widespread subspecies S. epaphus epaphus; it is mostly or entirely black in the other two subspecies. S. epaphus is found throughout Central America, where it is one of the most common butterflies. Its range extends from southern North America to central South America. The range includes (though may not be limited to) south Texas and rarely southern New Mexico south through both eastern and western Mexico to the Guyanas, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.


There are three recognized subspecies:
S. epaphus epaphus (widespread)
S. epaphus gadoui (described from Venezuela)
S. epaphus trayja (described from Brazil, Paraguay)


Sisymbrium altissimum is a species of Sisymbrium. The plant is native to the western part of the Mediterranean Basin and is widely naturalized throughout most of the world, including all of North America. After maturity it forms a tumbleweed. Common names of the plant include Jim Hill mustard, tall tumblemustard, tall mustard, tumble mustard, tumbleweed mustard, tall sisymbrium, and tall hedge mustard.


Tumble mustard forms an upright but delicate-looking plant, with slender, much-branched stems, growing up to 1.5 metres (5 feet) in height. Its stem leaves are divided into thin, linear lobes, while the basal leaves are broader and pinnately compound. The flowers are inconspicuous and only 6.4 millimetres (1⁄4 inch) wide. They have four usually yellow petals and four narrow, curved sepals. The seedpods are slender and long (5–10 centimetres or 2–4 in). The plant germinates in winter or early spring, with a lengthy blooming period. At maturity it dies, uproots, and tumbles in the wind, spreading its seeds.


The plant is native to the western part of the Mediterranean Basin in Europe and Northern Africa and is widely naturalized throughout most of the world, including all of North America. It was probably introduced into North America as a seed contaminant of crops.


The plant grows in soils of all textures, even sand.


The leaves are spicy enough to make wasabi but can also be mixed into salads and other dishes.


Sisymbrium irio, the London rocket, is a plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is an annual herb exceeding three feet in height with open, slender stem branches. The flowers are small with four pale yellow petals. The basal leaves are broad and often lobed, while the upper leaves are linear in shape and up to four inches long. The fruit is a long narrow cylindrical silique which stays green when ripe. The younger pods overtop the flowers. When dried the fruit has small red oblong seeds.
The common name "London rocket" allegedly comes from its abundance after the Great Fire of London in 1666. However, Dr E J Salisbury, in his study of the bombsites of London after the Great Fire of 1940, "failed to find a single specimen, nor has any other reliable observer reported it", according to R. S. R. Fitter.
This species is considered a weed in the Southwestern United States and other regions where it has been introduced.


The leaves, seeds, and flowers are edible, with a spicy flavor similar to cultivated rocket. London rocket is used in the Middle East to treat coughs and chest congestion, to relieve rheumatism, to detoxify the liver and spleen, and to reduce swelling and clean wounds. The Bedouin use the leaf of London Rocket as a tobacco substitute. The cured pods can be placed in a basket with live coals and shaken until the pods are parched, then ground into meal and made into soup or stew.


BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
A.R. Clapham; E.F. Warburg; T.G. Tutin (1968). Flora of the British Isles. ISBN 9780521046565.
Fitter, R. S. R. (1945). London's Natural History. London: Collins. p. 231. ISBN 1-870630-69-6.
The Ecology of Transportation, p. 11, at Google Books
Hennessy-Fiske, Molly (2019-03-11). "Naturalists scour border to draw attention to habitat, not migrant crisis". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
"edible weeds | Savor the Southwest". savorthesouthwest.blog. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
Lev, Efraima (2003) "Sisymbrium irio" Medicinal substances in Jerusalem from early times to the present day Archaeopress, Oxford, UK, p. 62, ISBN 978-1-84171-490-5
Bailey, Clinton and Danin, Avinoam (1981) "Bedouin Plant Utilization in Sinai and the Negev" Economic Botany 35(2): pp. 145-162, p. 158
Warnock, Barton H. (1977) "Wildflowers of the Davis Mountains and the Marathon Basin, Texas", p. 111


Sisymbrium loeselii is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by several common names, including small tumbleweed mustard, false London-rocket, throughe(ver:kashmiri) and tall hedge mustard. It is native to Eurasia, and it is known on other continents as an introduced species and in some areas a common roadside weed. It is an annual herb producing a hairy, erect stem which can exceed a meter in height. The leaf blades are divided into triangular, lance-shaped, and toothed linear lobes, and are borne on petioles. The top of the stem is occupied by a raceme of flowers with bright yellow petals each measuring just under a centimeter long. The fruit is a silique up to 3.5 centimeters in length containing tiny seeds.
This plant is allelopathic against other species growing around it. It produces chemicals that inhibit the germination of seeds of other species, including bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata) and Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis). It also inhibits arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus species, such as Glomus intraradices.


Sisymbrium officinale, the hedge mustard, (formerly Erysimum officinale) is a plant in the family Brassicaceae.


It is distinct from the mustard plants which belong to the genus Brassica. S. officinale is similar to other Sisymbrium, but differs in its tall, erect stems with tiny flowers and fruits that are compacted parallel to the stem instead of hanging free.
S.officinale grows to 80 cm high. The lower leaves are broad with two or three lateral lobes. The flowers are about 4 mm across and yellow. Fruits are long and without hairs when young but show hairs when mature and reach 18 mm long on racemes pressed close to the stems.
Hedge-mustard is food for the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera, such as the small white (Pieris rapae).


Found in Ireland, Wales and England and also in the highlands of Scotland.  It is found on roadsides, wasteland and as a weed of arable land.  A native of Europe and North Africa, it is now well-established throughout the world.


This plant is widely cultivated across Europe for its edible leaves and seeds. It is widely used as a condiment in Northern Europe (particularly Denmark, Norway and Germany).
The leaves have a bitter cabbage-like flavour and they are used either in salads or cooked as a leaf vegetable (in cultivar versions). The seeds have been used to make mustard pastes in Europe.


The Greeks believed it was an antidote to all poisons. In folk medicine, it was used to soothe sore throats - indeed one name for it is singer's plant. This plant "grows by our roadsides and on waste ground, where it is a common weed, with a peculiar aptitude for collecting and retaining dust...it is named by the French the 'Singer's Plant,' it having been considered up to the time of Louis XIV an infallible remedy for loss of voice. Jean Racine, writing to Nicolas Boileau, recommends him to try the syrup...in order to be cured of voicelessness." It is "good for all diseases of the chest and lungs, hoarseness of voice...the juice...made into a syrup with honey or sugar, is no less effectual...for all other coughs, wheezing and shortness of breath...the seed is held to be a special remedy against poison and venom." It was "formerly used for hoarseness, weak lungs and to help the voice." Herbalists use the juice and flowers for bronchitis and stomach ailments, among other uses, and as a revitalizer. In Tibetan medicine it is used to repress the symptoms of food poisoning.


Sisyrinchium montanum is a herbaceous perennial plant that grows in clumps between 10 and 50 cm (4 and 20 in) tall. Its stems have wings with entire to finely toothed margins. The leaves and stem are slender, 3 mm (¹⁄₈ in) broad, green or brownish, with sharp edges and a fine point.
The flowers are produced in a small cyme of two to five together emerging from a spathe, each flower about 2 cm (³⁄₄ in) diameter, with six purplish tepals with a yellowish base and yellow stamens. The fruit is a capsule 4.5–6 mm (0.18–0.24 in) long, containing numerous small black seeds.


Sitochroa palealis, the carrot seed moth, is a species of moth of the family Crambidae described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is found in Europe and in 2002 the first specimen was reported in the United States.
The wingspan is 26–34 mm. The moth flies from June to July depending on the location.
The larvae feed on Daucus carota, Peucedanum oreoselinum and species from the genera, Heracleum, Foeniculum and Silaum.


The red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) is a small songbird. The adult has blue-grey upperparts with cinnamon underparts, a white throat and face with a black stripe through the eyes, a straight grey bill and a black crown. Its call, which has been likened to a tin trumpet, is high-pitched and nasal. It breeds in coniferous forests across Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States. Though often a permanent resident, it regularly irrupts further south if its food supply fails. There are records of vagrants occurring as far south as the Gulf Coast and northern Mexico. It forages on the trunks and large branches of trees, often descending head first, sometimes catching insects in flight. It eats mainly insects and seeds, especially from conifers. It excavates its nest in dead wood, often close to the ground, smearing the entrance with pitch.


In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the red-breasted nuthatch in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Canada. He used the French name Le torchepot de Canada and the Latin Sitta Canadensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names for the species, these usually do not conform to the binomial system and none of them are recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the red-breasted nuthatch. Linnaeus included a brief description and used Brisson's name Sitta canadensis as his binomial name.
Like all nuthatches, the red-breasted nuthatch is assigned to the genus Sitta (Linnaeus, 1758), a name derived from sittē (σίττη), the Ancient Greek word for the Eurasian nuthatch. The specific epithet canadensis is New Latin for "belonging to Canada".  "Nuthatch" is a linguistic corruption of "nuthack", referring to the bird's habit of wedging nuts into cracks in tree bark and hacking at them until they break open. "Red-breasted" is a reference to the rusty colour of the male's underparts.
In the past, the red-breasted nuthatch and four other species — the Corsican nuthatch, the Chinese nuthatch, the Algerian nuthatch and the Krüper's nuthatch — were thought to be a single species. These five make up a well-defined species group known as the "Sitta canadensis group", and are sometimes considered to be a superspecies. Within the species group, DNA studies have shown that the red-breasted nuthatch, the Corsican nuthatch and the Chinese nuthatch make up one clade and the Algerian nuthatch and Krüper's nuthatch make up a sister clade. The red-breasted nuthatch is monotypic across its extensive range.


The red-breasted nuthatch is a small passerine, measuring 4.5 in (11 cm) in length, with a wingspan of 8.5 in (22 cm) and a weight of 9.9 g (0.35 oz). Its back and uppertail are bluish, and its underparts rust-colored. It has a black cap and eye line and a white supercilium (eyebrow). Sexes are similarly plumaged, though females and youngsters have duller heads and paler underparts.


The red-breasted nuthatch's call is high-pitched, nasal and weak. Transcribed as yenk or ink, they have been likened to a toy tin horn or a child's noisemaker. Its song is a slowly repeated series of clear, nasal, rising notes, transcribed as eeen eeen eeen.


Though it is primarily a full-time resident of northern and subalpine conifer forests, the red-breasted nuthatch regularly migrates irruptively, with both the number migrating and the wintering locations varying from year to year. They sometimes reach northern Mexico, where they are rare winter visitors to Nuevo León, Baja California Norte and south along the Pacific slope as far as Sinaloa. In the eastern United States, its range is expanding southwards. Though formerly resident on Isla Guadalupe, an island off the western coast of Mexico, it appears to have been extirpated there, with the last known record of the species on the island dating from 1971. There is a single vagrant record for Mexico's Isla Socorro. It is an extremely rare vagrant to Europe, with two records in the western Palearctic; one bird successfully overwintered in eastern England.


Like all nuthatches, the red-breasted nuthatch is an acrobatic species, hitching itself up and down tree trunks and branches to look for food. It goes headfirst when climbing down. It can "walk" on the underside of branches. Unlike woodpeckers and creepers, it does not use its tail as a prop while climbing. It tends to forage singly or in pairs.
The red-breasted nuthatch's diet changes depending on the season. In the summer, it eats mostly insects, occasionally even flycatching, while in the winter, it switches to conifer seeds. At feeders it will take sunflower seeds, peanut butter, and suet. It often wedges food pieces in bark crevices in order to break them up with the bill (as opposed to holding the food in their feet, like the black-capped chickadee does).


The red-breasted nuthatch, like all nuthatches, is monogamous. The male courts the female with a peculiar display, lifting his head and tail while turning his back to her, drooping his wings, and swaying from side to side.
This bird excavates its own cavity nest, 1.53–37 m (5.0–121.4 ft) above ground (usually around 4.6 m (15 ft)). Excavation is by both sexes and takes one to eight weeks. The pair smears sap around the entrance hole, presumably to help deter predators. The nest is lined with grass, moss, shredded bark and rootlets. Nest building is by both sexes, but mostly by the female.
The female lays 2–8 eggs (usually 5–6), which are white, creamy or pinkish, and covered with reddish-brown speckles. The eggs measure 0.6–0.7 in (1.5–1.8 cm) long by 0.4–0.5 in (1.0–1.3 cm) wide. Incubation is by the female and lasts 12–13 days. The young are altricial and stay in the nest for 2–3 weeks, brooded by the female but fed by both sexes. Normally there is only one brood per year. Lifespan is around 6 years.


Because of its large global range and its increasing population, the red-breasted nuthatch is rated as a species of Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In the Americas, it is protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.


Smallanthus uvedalia, known as hairy leafcup, bear's foot, and yellow flower leafcup, is a herbaceous perennial native to the Central and Eastern United States.  It is a member of the family Asteraceae.


Hairy leafcup is 0.6 to 3.0 m (24 – 118 in) tall. The stem is stout and generally smooth below the inflorescence branches. The opposite leaves form a small cup around the stem and hence the name leafcup. Each head has 7 to 13 yellow, 1 – 2 cm (3/8 to 3/4 in) long ray flowers to the outside, and 40-80 or so yellow tube-like disc flowers to the inside. A single large plant may produce one hundred or so heads. The entire plant has a resinous odor.
The species was formerly named Polymnia uvedalia (Linnaeus) Linnaeus.


Smilax tamnoides, common name bristly greenbrier, is a North American species of plants native to the United States and Canada. It is widespread from Ontario and New York State south to Texas and Florida.
The plant has been called Smilax hispida in many publications, but the name Smilax tamnoides is much older and under the botanical rules of priority it is the preferred name.
Smilax tamnoides is a climbing, prickly vine that supports itself on other vegetation. Flowers are green to brown, small but numerous in umbels; fruits blue to black without the waxy coating common on many other species of the genus.


It is as a special concern species and believed extirpated in Connecticut.


Smyrna blomfildia, the Blomfild's beauty, is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae.


Smyrna blomfildia blomfildia Fabricius, 1793 (Brazil)
Smyrna blomfildia datis Fruhstorfer, 1908 (Mexico to Panama)


Blomfild's beauty can be found from south Texas and Mexico to Peru through Central America. These butterflies live in tropical forests at an elevation of 0–1,200 metres (0–3,937 ft) above sea level.


Smyrna blomfildia has a wingspan of about 75–90 millimetres (3.0–3.5 in). The basic color of the wings is red orange in males, brown in females. The upperside of the forewings show a black apex with three white spots. The underside of hindwings has brown and tan wavy markings with a few submarginal spots.


The larvae are black, with a bright orange head and strong spines along the white sides. They feed on Urticaceae (Urticastrum, Urrera baccifera), while adults feed on rotting fruits. Males of these butterflies are usually seen in large aggregations imbibing mineralized moisture.


Solanum americanum, commonly known as American black nightshade, small-flowered nightshade or glossy nightshade, is a herbaceous flowering plant of wide though uncertain native range. The certain native range encompasses the tropics and subtropics of the Americas, Melanesia, New Guinea, and Australia.
The plant is widely naturalised around the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans, including Hawaiʻi, Indochina, Madagascar and Africa, possibly via anthropogenic introduction in these locales.
Solanum americanum is one of the most widespread and morphologically variable species belonging to the section Solanum. It can be confused with other black nightshade species in the Solanum nigrum complex.


Solanum americanum grows up to 1–1.5 metres (39–59 in) tall and is an annual or short-lived perennial. The leaves are alternate on the branch, and vary greatly in size, up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) long and 7 centimetres (2.8 in) broad, with a 4-centimetre (1.6 in) petiole and a coarsely wavy or toothed margin. The flowers are about 1 cm diameter, white or occasionally light purple, with yellow stamens. The fruit is a shiny black berry 5–10 millimetres (0.20–0.39 in) diameter, containing numerous small seeds.


Solanum americanum is a variable taxon. It is considered by some botanists to be more than one species, and others recognise subspecies. Some botanists have suggested that Solanum americanum may be conspecific with the European nightshade, S. nigrum.


Research indicates the presence of toxic glycoalkaloids and there are warnings to be careful on the use of S. americanum as herbal medicine and food. The green fruit is particularly poisonous and eating unripe berries has caused the death of children.  Ripe berries and foliage may also cause poisoning, though the toxicity seems to diminish somewhat with ripening. This is via high levels of the glycoalkaloids, solanine and solamargine. Other toxins present in the plant include chaconine, solasonine, solanigrine, gitogenin and traces of saponins, as well as the tropane alkaloids scopolamine (hyoscine), atropine and hyoscyamine.
Significant amounts of solasodine (0.65%) have been found in the green berries.  The ripe fruit also contains 0.3–0.45% solasonine, and acetylcholine, and has a cholinesterase-inhibiting effect on human plasma. In Transkei, rural people have a high incidence of esophageal cancer thought to be a result of using S. americanum as a food. Livestock can also be poisoned by high nitrate levels in the leaves.
Toxicity varies widely depending on the genetic strain and the location conditions, like soil and rainfall. Poisonous plant experts advise: "...unless you are certain that the berries are from an edible strain, leave them alone."


Solanum chenopodioides, commonly known as the whitetip nightshade or velvety nightshade, is a shrub of the family Solanaceae native to South America. It has become naturalised in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.


Solanum douglasii is a species of plant in the family Solanaceae known by the common name greenspot nightshade.
It is native to the northern half of Mexico and the southwestern south-central United States. Its habitat includes scrub and woodland.


Solanum douglasii is a perennial herb or subshrub approaching two meters in maximum height. The stem is coated in short, white hairs. The leaves may be up to 9 centimeters long and have smooth or toothed edges.
The inflorescence is an umbel-shaped array of flowers with star-shaped white corollas up to a centimeter wide. There are generally green spots at the bases of the corolla lobes. The yellow anthers are a few millimeters in length. Flowers may be seen blooming throughout much of the year.
The fruit is a spherical berry up to a centimeter wide.
Uses
Native Americans used the juice of the berries medicinally, and the Luiseño used it as dye for tattooing.


Solanum elaeagnifolium, the silverleaf nightshade or silver-leaved nightshade,  is a common native plant to parts of the southwestern USA, and sometimes weed of western North America and also found in South America. Other common names include prairie berry, silverleaf nettle, white horsenettle or silver nightshade. In South Africa it is known as silver-leaf bitter-apple or satansbos ("Satan's bush" in Afrikaans). More ambiguous names include "bull-nettle", "horsenettle" and the Spanish "trompillo". The plant is also endemic to the Middle East.
Solanum elaeagnifolium was described by A. J. Cavanilles. The plant described under the same name by W. Herbert and C. L. Willdenow based on E.G. von Steudel is Solanum aethiopicum.


It is a perennial 10 cm to 1 m in height. The stems are covered with nettle-like prickles, ranging from very few on some plants to very dense on others.  Leaves and stems are covered with downy hairs (trichomes) that lie against and hide the surface, giving a silvery or grayish appearance.
The leaves are up to 15 cm long and 0.5 to 2.5 cm wide, with shallowly waved edges, which distinguish it from the closely related Carolina Horsenettle (S. carolinense), which has wider, more deeply indented leaves.  The flowers, appearing from April to August, have five petals united to form a star, ranging from blue to pale lavender or occasionally white; five yellow stamens and a pistil form a projecting center.  The plant produces glossy yellow, orange, or red berries that last all winter and may turn brown as they dry.
Its range is from Kansas south to Louisiana, and west through the Mexican-border states of the United States into Mexico, as well as Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. It may have originated in North America and was accidentally introduced to South America or the reverse. It can grow in poor soil with very little water. It spreads by rhizomes as well as seeds, and is common in disturbed habitats. It is considered a noxious weed in 21 U.S. states and in countries such as Australia, Egypt, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It is toxic to livestock and very hard to control, as root stocks less than 1 cm long can regenerate into plants. However, some gardeners encourage it as a xeriscape ornamental.
The Pima Indians used the berries as a vegetable rennet, and the Kiowa used the seeds together with brain tissue to tan leather.


Ingestion of silverleaf nightshade has been implicated as a cause of ivermectin toxicosis in horses given the recommended dosage of the drug. Metabolites from the plant are speculated to disrupt the blood-brain barrier, allowing ivermectin to enter and disrupt neurotransmitter function in the brain and spinal cord.


This plant has been described under a range of names, all now invalid. These contain many homonyms among them:
Solanum dealbatum Lindl.
Solanum flavidum Torr.
Solanum incanum Pav. ex Dunal (non L.: preoccupied)
S. incanum of Ruiz & Pavón Jiménez is S. albidum as described by Dunal.
S. incanum of Kitaibel based on Kanitz is S. villosum as described by Philip Miller
S. incanum of Scheff. is S. schefferi.
S. incanum var. lichtensteinii and var. subexarmatum are S. lichtensteinii.
Solanum leprosum Ortega
Solanum obtusifolium Dunal (non Willd.: preoccupied)
S. obtusifolium of Hartweg based on Otto Sendtner in von Martius is S. ferrugineum.
S. obtusifolium of Willdenow is S. aethiopicum.
Solanum pyriforme var. uniflorum Dunal
Solanum roemerianum Scheele
Solanum saponaceum Hook. (non Dunal: preoccupied)
S. saponaceum of Welwitsch is S. aculeastrum.
S. saponaceum var. uruguense is S. bonariense.
Solanum texense Engelm. & A.Gray
Solanum uniflorum Meyen ex Nees (non Dunal: preoccupied)
S. uniflorum of de Conceição Vellozo is S. pseudocapsicum.
S. uniflorum of Sessé & Mociño and S. uniflorum of Dunal in Poiret have been identified as Lycianthes mociniana.
S. uniflorum of Lagasca y Segura and Solanum uniflorum var. berterianum are undetermined species of Lycianthes.
Several varieties and forms of S. elaeagnifolium have been named. They are not usually considered taxonomically distinct:
Solanum elaeagnifolium f. albiflorum Cockerell
Solanum elaeagnifolium var. angustifolium Kuntze
Not to be confused with S. angustifolium of Philip Miller
Solanum elaeagnifolium var. argyrocroton Griseb.
Solanum elaeagnifolium f. benkei Standl.
Solanum elaeagnifolium var. grandiflorum Griseb.
Not to be confused with S. grandiflorum of Ruiz and Pavón Jiménez
Solanum elaeagnifolium var. leprosum (Ortega) Dunal
Solanum elaeagnifolium var. obtusifolium (Dunal) Dunal
S. elaeagnifolium var. ovalifolium does not refer to the S. ovalifolium as described by Dunal and does not belong to the present species; it is actually S. aridum. Meanwhile, S. crispum var. elaeagnifolium is just the normal S. crispum of Ruiz and Pavón Jiménez.


Solanum erianthum is a species of nightshade that is native to southern North America and northern South America. It has been introduced to other parts of the world and has a nearly pantropical distribution. Common names include mullein nightshade (that may also refer to S. donianum), velvet nightshade, and salvadora. The potatoes are not the fruits of the trees, they are the leaves.


Solanum erianthum is placed in the subgenus Brevantherum, section Brevantherum of Solanum.


Potatotree is a fast-growing evergreen shrub or small tree, reaching a height of 2–8 m (6.6–26.2 ft). The grey or brown bark is smooth-lenticellate and the trunk is 2–5 cm (0.79–1.97 in) thick. The crown is flat-topped and spreading. Although the wood is soft and brittle, the limbs are strong enough to support birds such as chachalacas. The simple leaves are alternate, ovate or elliptic, and 12–37 cm (4.7–14.6 in) long. Flowers are in lateral cymes and are 1.1–1.8 cm (0.43–0.71 in) in diameter. The five-lobed corolla is white and the five stamens have yellow anthers. The fruit is a yellow berry 1–1.2 cm (0.39–0.47 in) in diameter with many seeds. The specific epithet, erianthum, is derived from the Greek words ἔριον (erion), meaning "wooly", and ἄνθος (anthos), meaning "flower," referring to the dense trichomes (hairs) on the flowers. Other parts of the plant are also covered in trichomes, including the berries, leaves, stem tips, and petioles. Broken roots smell like cooked potatoes, while trichomes on the leaves, stems, and petioles release an odor similar to tar when rubbed.


Solanum erianthum is native to the southernmost parts of the contiguous United States (southern Florida and the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas), the Bahamas, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America, including the Galápagos Islands. It is believed that Spanish explorers introduced Potato Tree to the Philippines in the 16th century, and from there it spread to Malesia, Australia, and the Asian mainland. It was probably introduced to West Africa from the Caribbean via the Atlantic slave trade. It is not found in most of South America.


Potatotree can be found at elevations from sea level to 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in a variety of habitats, including riparian zones, dry forests, and moist forests. It often grows in disturbed areas, such as roadsides, fields, and waste places, and may be considered a weed. Potato Tree is a ruderal species, quickly colonizing forest gaps caused by treefall, as well as a pioneer species, able to grow on degraded mining sites prior to other vegetation.


Like other species in its genus, S. erianthum has a number of ethnobotanical and pharmaceutical uses. This is due to the presence of steroidal saponins, free genins, and steroidal alkaloids of the spirosolane group, such as solasodine and tomatidine. Alkaloids account for around 0.4% of the mass of dry berries and leaves. Steroidal alkaloids found in the plant are used by the pharmaceutical industry as precursors for the manufacture of synthetic steroids.


Potatotree finds many uses as an herbal medicine in Tropical Asia. The leaves are believed to be effective with ridding the body of impurities through the urine and are used for leukorrhea for that reason. The leaves are also used to induce abortion, while a poultice made from crushed leaves is used for hemorrhoids and scrofula. Heated leaves are applied to the forehead as an analgesic for headaches and a leaf decoction is used for vertigo. A root decoction is used to treat dysentery, fever, diarrhea, digestive problems, and violent body pains. The root bark is used as an anti-inflammatory and to treat arthritis. In West Africa, a decoction made from the leaves is used to treat leprosy, sexually-transmitted diseases, and malaria due to its laxative and diuretic effects.


The leaves are used in the Philippines to clean grease from dishes. The berries are toxic to humans, causing headache, cramps, and nausea, but are cooked and eaten in Southeast Asia and made into curry in southern India. They are a component of arrow poison in Tropical Asia. Potato Tree is grown as an ornamental in the Caribbean and is an acceptable shade plant for shade-grown coffee.


Solanum laciniatum is a soft-wooded shrub native to the east coast of Australia, notably Victoria and Tasmania.  It also occurs in Western Australia and New Zealand, where some authorities consider it to be introduced.  It is similar to Solanum aviculare, with which it shares the common name kangaroo apple. The common name refers to the likeness of the leaf shape to a kangaroo paw print. This plant is currently being cultivated to produce corticosteroid drugs.


The shrub typically grows to a height and width of 1 to 3 m (3 ft 3 in to 9 ft 10 in) and blooms between January and February producing purple blue flowers.


Grows in well-drained soils in full sun or partial shade. Tolerates moderately salty winds. Is very fast growing but short lived. Solanum laciniatum often colonises disturbed soil and tracks.


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 tomatl gave rise to the Spanish word tomate, from which the English word tomato derived. Its domestication and use as a cultivated food may have originated with the indigenous peoples of Mexico. The Aztecs used tomatoes in their cooking at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and after the Spanish encountered the tomato for the first time after their contact with the Aztecs, they brought the plant to Europe, in a widespread transfer of plants known as the Columbian exchange. From there, the tomato was introduced to other parts of the European-colonized world during the 16th century.
Tomatoes are a significant source of umami flavor. They are consumed in diverse ways: raw or cooked, and in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. While tomatoes are fruits—botanically classified as berries—they are commonly used culinarily as a vegetable ingredient or side dish.
Numerous varieties of the tomato plant are widely grown in temperate climates across the world, with greenhouses allowing for the production of tomatoes throughout all seasons of the year. Tomato plants typically grow to 1–3 meters (3–10 ft) in height. They are vines that have a weak stem that sprawls and typically needs support. Indeterminate tomato plants are perennials in their native habitat, but are cultivated as annuals. (Determinate, or bush, plants are annuals that stop growing at a certain height and produce a crop all at once.) The size of the tomato varies according to the cultivar, with a range of 1–10 cm (1⁄2–4 in) in width.


The word tomato comes from the Spanish tomate, which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl [ˈtomat͡ɬ] pronunciation , meaning 'swelling fruit'; also 'fat water' or 'fat thing'. The native Mexican tomatillo is tomate. When Aztecs started to cultivate the fruit to be larger, sweeter and red, they called the new variety xitomatl (or jitomates) ([ʃiːˈtomatɬ]), ('plump with navel' or 'fat water with navel'). The specific name lycopersicum (from the 1753 book Species Plantarum) is of Greek origin (λύκοπερσικων; lykopersikon), meaning 'wolf peach'.


The usual pronunciations of tomato are /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ (usual in American English) and /təˈmɑːtoʊ/ (usual in British English). The word's dual pronunciations were immortalized in Ira and George Gershwin's 1937 song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" ("You like /pəˈteɪtoʊ/ and I like /pəˈtɑːtoʊ/ / You like /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ and I like /təˈmɑːtoʊ/") and have become a symbol for nitpicking pronunciation disputes. In this capacity, it has even become an American and British slang term: saying "/təˈmeɪtoʊ təˈmɑːtoʊ/" when presented with two choices can mean "What's the difference?" or "It's all the same to me".


Tomato plants are vines, initially decumbent, typically growing 180 cm (6 ft) or more above the ground if supported, although erect bush varieties have been bred, generally 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) tall or shorter. Indeterminate types are "tender" perennials, dying annually in temperate climates (they are originally native to tropical highlands), although they can live up to three years in a greenhouse in some cases. Determinate types are annual in all climates.
Tomato plants are dicots, and grow as a series of branching stems, with a terminal bud at the tip that does the actual growing. When the tip eventually stops growing, whether because of pruning or flowering, lateral buds take over and grow into other, fully functional, vines.
Tomato vines are typically pubescent, meaning covered with fine short hairs. The hairs facilitate the vining process, turning into roots wherever the plant is in contact with the ground and moisture, especially if the vine's connection to its original root has been damaged or severed.
Most tomato plants have compound leaves, and are called regular leaf (RL) plants, but some cultivars have simple leaves known as potato leaf (PL) style because of their resemblance to that particular relative. Of RL plants, there are variations, such as rugose leaves, which are deeply grooved, and variegated, angora leaves, which have additional colors where a genetic mutation causes chlorophyll to be excluded from some portions of the leaves.
The leaves are 10–25 cm (4–10 in) long, odd pinnate, with five to nine leaflets on petioles, each leaflet up to 8 cm (3 in) long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy.
Their flowers, appearing on the apical meristem, have the anthers fused along the edges, forming a column surrounding the pistil's style. Flowers in domestic cultivars can be self-fertilizing. The flowers are 1–2 cm (1⁄2–3⁄4 in) across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of three to 12 together.
Although in culinary terms, tomato is regarded as a vegetable, its fruit is classified botanically as a berry. As a true fruit, it develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization, its flesh comprising the pericarp walls. The fruit contains hollow spaces full of seeds and moisture, called locular cavities. These vary, among cultivated species, according to type. Some smaller varieties have two cavities, globe-shaped varieties typically have three to five, beefsteak tomatoes have a great number of smaller cavities, while paste tomatoes have very few, very small cavities.
For propagation, the seeds need to come from a mature fruit, and be dried or fermented before germination.


In 1753, Linnaeus placed the tomato in the genus Solanum (alongside the potato) as Solanum lycopersicum. In 1768, Philip Miller moved it to its own genus, naming it Lycopersicon esculentum. The name came into wide use, but was technically in breach of the plant naming rules because Linnaeus's species name lycopersicum still had priority. Although the name Lycopersicum lycopersicum was suggested by Karsten (1888), it is not used because it violates the International Code of Nomenclature barring the use of tautonyms in botanical nomenclature. The corrected name Lycopersicon lycopersicum (Nicolson 1974) was technically valid, because Miller's genus name and Linnaeus's species name differ in exact spelling, but since Lycopersicon esculentum has become so well known, it was officially listed as a nomen conservandum in 1983, and would be the correct name for the tomato in classifications which do not place the tomato in the genus Solanum.
Genetic evidence has now shown that Linnaeus was correct to put the tomato in the genus Solanum, making Solanum lycopersicum the correct name. Both names, however, will probably be found in the literature for some time. Two of the major reasons for considering the genera separate are the leaf structure (tomato leaves are markedly different from any other Solanum), and the biochemistry (many of the alkaloids common to other Solanum species are conspicuously absent in the tomato). On the other hand, hybrids of tomato and diploid potato can be created in the lab by somatic fusion, and are partially fertile, providing evidence of the close relationship between these species.


An international consortium of researchers from 10 countries, began sequencing the tomato genome in 2004. A prerelease version of the genome was made available in December 2009. The complete genome for the cultivar Heinz 1706 was published on 31 May 2012 in Nature. The latest reference genome published in 2021 had 799 MB and encodes 34,384 (predicted) proteins, spread over 12 chromosomes.


Since many other fruits, like strawberries, apples, melons, and bananas share the same characteristics and genes, researchers stated the published genome could help to improve food quality, food security and reduce costs of all of these fruits.
The first commercially available genetically modified food was a tomato called Flavr Savr, which was engineered to have a longer shelf life. However, it is no longer commercially available. Scientists are continuing to develop tomatoes with new traits not found in natural crops, such as increased resistance to pests or environmental stresses or better flavor.


The Tomato Genetic Resource Center, Germplasm Resources Information Network, AVRDC, and numerous seed banks around the world store seed representing genetic variations of value to modern agriculture. These seed stocks are available for legitimate breeding and research efforts. While individual breeding efforts can produce useful results, the bulk of tomato breeding work is at universities and major agriculture-related corporations. These efforts have resulted in significant regionally adapted breeding lines and hybrids, such as the Mountain series from North Carolina. Corporations including Heinz, Monsanto, BHNSeed, and Bejoseed have breeding programs that attempt to improve production, size, shape, color, flavor, disease tolerance, pest tolerance, nutritional value, and numerous other traits.


Botanically, a tomato is a fruit—a berry, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. However, the tomato is considered a "culinary vegetable" because it has a much lower sugar content than culinary fruits; because it is more savoury (umami) than sweet, it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, rather than as a dessert. Tomatoes are not the only food source with this ambiguity; bell peppers, cucumbers, green beans, eggplants, avocados, and squashes of all kinds (such as courgettes/zucchini and pumpkins) are all botanically fruit, yet cooked as vegetables.
The confusion on whether tomatoes are fruits or vegetables has led to legal dispute in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables, but not on fruit, caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. In Nix v. Hedden, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the tariff controversy on May 10, 1893, by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use—they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. The holding of this case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff of 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes.


The wild ancestor of the tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium, is native to western South America. These wild versions were the size of peas. The first evidence of domestication points to the Aztecs and other peoples in Mesoamerica, who used the fruit fresh and in their cooking. The Spanish first introduced tomatoes to Europe, where they became used in Spanish food. In France, Italy and northern Europe, the tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant. It was regarded with suspicion as a food because botanists recognized it as a nightshade, a relative of the poisonous belladonna. This was exacerbated by the interaction of the tomato's acidic juice with pewter plates. The leaves and immature fruit contains tomatine, which in large quantities would be toxic. However, the ripe fruit contains no tomatine.


The exact date of domestication is unknown; by 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas. The Pueblo people are thought to have believed that those who witnessed the ingestion of tomato seeds were blessed with powers of divination. The large, lumpy variety of tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be the direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes.
The Aztecs raised several varieties of tomato, with red tomatoes called xictomatl and green tomatoes called tomatl (Tomatillo). Bernardino de Sahagún reported seeing a great variety of tomatoes in the Aztec market at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City): ". . . large tomatoes, small tomatoes, leaf tomatoes, sweet tomatoes, large serpent tomatoes, nipple-shaped tomatoes," and tomatoes of all colors from the brightest red to the deepest yellow. Bernardino de Sahagún mentioned Aztecs cooking various sauces, some with and without tomatoes of different sizes, serving them in city markets: "foods sauces, hot sauces; fried [food], olla-cooked [food], juices, sauces of juices, shredded [food] with chile, with squash seeds [most likely Cucurbita pepo], with tomatoes, with smoked chile, with hot chile, with yellow chile, with mild red chile sauce, yellow chile sauce, hot chile sauce, with "bird excrement" sauce, sauce of smoked chile, heated [sauces], bean sauce; [he sells] toasted beans, cooked beans, mushroom sauce, sauce of small squash, sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, sauce of various kinds of sour herbs, avocado sauce."


Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés may have been the first to transfer a small yellow tomato to Europe after he captured the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, in 1521. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in a herbal written in 1544 by Pietro Andrea Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist, who suggested that a new type of eggplant had been brought to Italy that was blood red or golden color when mature and could be divided into segments and eaten like an eggplant—that is, cooked and seasoned with salt, black pepper, and oil. It was not until ten years later that tomatoes were named in print by Mattioli as pomi d'oro, or "golden apples".
After the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean. They also took it to the Philippines, from where it spread to southeast Asia and then the entire Asian continent. The Spanish also brought the tomato to Europe. It grew easily in Mediterranean climates, and cultivation began in the 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, and was certainly being used as food by the early 17th century in Spain.


The tomato was introduced to China, likely via the Philippines or Macau, in the 1500s. It was given the name fānqié (barbarian eggplant), as the Chinese named many foodstuffs introduced from abroad, but referring specifically to early introductions.


The recorded history of tomatoes in Italy dates back to at least 31 October 1548, when the house steward of Cosimo de' Medici, the grand duke of Tuscany, wrote to the Medici private secretary informing him that the basket of tomatoes sent from the grand duke's Florentine estate at Torre del Gallo "had arrived safely". Tomatoes were grown mainly as ornamentals early on after their arrival in Italy. For example, the Florentine aristocrat Giovanvettorio Soderini wrote how they "were to be sought only for their beauty", and were grown only in gardens or flower beds. The tomato's ability to mutate and create new and different varieties helped contribute to its success and spread throughout Italy. However, even in areas where the climate supported growing tomatoes, their habit of growing to the ground suggested low status. They were not adopted as a staple of the peasant population because they were not as filling as other fruits already available. Additionally, both toxic and inedible varieties discouraged many people from attempting to consume or prepare any other varieties. In certain areas of Italy, such as Florence, the fruit was used solely as a tabletop decoration, until it was incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.
Unique varieties were developed over the next several hundred years for uses such as dried tomatoes, sauce tomatoes, pizza tomatoes, and tomatoes for long-term storage. These varieties are usually known for their place of origin as much as by a variety name. For example, Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio is the "hanging tomato of Vesuvius", or the well known and highly-prized San Marzano plum tomato grown in that region.


Tomatoes were not grown in England until the 1590s. One of the earliest cultivators was John Gerard, a barber-surgeon. Gerard's Herbal, published in 1597, and largely plagiarized from continental sources, is also one of the earliest discussions of the tomato in England. Gerard knew the tomato was eaten in Spain and Italy. Nonetheless, he believed it was poisonous (in fact, the plant and raw fruit do have low levels of tomatine, but are not generally dangerous; see below). Gerard's views were influential, and the tomato was considered unfit for eating (though not necessarily poisonous) for many years in Britain and its North American colonies.
However, by the mid-18th century, tomatoes were widely eaten in Britain, and before the end of that century, the Encyclopædia Britannica stated the tomato was "in daily use" in soups, broths, and as a garnish. They were not part of the average person's diet, and though by 1820 they were described as "to be seen in great abundance in all our vegetable markets" and to be "used by all our best cooks", reference was made to their cultivation in gardens still "for the singularity of their appearance", while their use in cooking was associated with exotic Italian or Jewish cuisine.


The tomato arrived in India by the way of Portuguese explorers, in the 16th century.
It was grown from the 18th century onwards for the British.
Even today, in Bengal, the alternative name is "Biliti Begun" (Bengali: বিলিতি বেগুন), meaning "Foreign Eggplant"
It was then adopted widely as it is well suited to India's climate, with Uttarakhand as one of the main producers.


The tomato was introduced to cultivation in the Middle East by John Barker, British consul in Aleppo circa 1799 to 1825. Nineteenth century descriptions of its consumption are uniformly as an ingredient in a cooked dish. In 1881, it is described as only eaten in the region "within the last forty years". Today, the tomato is a critical and ubiquitous part of Middle Eastern cuisine, served fresh in salads (e.g., Arab salad, Israeli salad, Shirazi salad and Turkish salad), grilled with kebabs and other dishes, made into sauces, and so on.


The earliest reference to tomatoes being grown in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist William Salmon reported seeing them in what is today South Carolina. They may have been introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated on some Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the Southeast as well. Possibly, some people continued to think tomatoes were poisonous at this time; and in general, they were grown more as ornamental plants than as food. Thomas Jefferson, who ate tomatoes in Paris, sent some seeds back to America. Some early American advocates of the culinary use of the tomato included Michele Felice Cornè and Robert Gibbon Johnson.
Early tomato breeders included Henry Tilden in Iowa and a Dr. Hand in Baltimore.
Alexander W. Livingston receives much credit for developing numerous varieties of tomato for both home and commercial gardeners. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1937 yearbook declared that "half of the major varieties were a result of the abilities of the Livingstons to evaluate and perpetuate superior material in the tomato." Livingston's first breed of tomato, the Paragon, was introduced in 1870, the beginning of a great tomato culture enterprise in the county. In 1875, he introduced the Acme, which was said to be involved in the parentage of most of the tomatoes introduced by him and his competitors for the next twenty-five years.
When Livingston began his attempts to develop the tomato as a commercial crop, his aim had been to grow tomatoes smooth in contour, uniform in size, and sweet in flavor. He eventually developed over seventeen different varieties of the tomato plant. Today, the crop is grown in every state in the Union.
Because of the long growing season needed for this heat-loving crop, several states in the US Sun Belt became major tomato-producers, particularly Florida and California. In California, tomatoes are grown under irrigation for both the fresh fruit market and for canning and processing. The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) became a major center for research on the tomato. The C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center at UC Davis is a gene bank of wild relatives, monogenic mutants and miscellaneous genetic stocks of tomato. The center is named for the late Dr. Charles M. Rick, a pioneer in tomato genetics research. Research on processing tomatoes is also conducted by the California Tomato Research Institute in Escalon, California.
In California, growers have used a method of cultivation called dry-farming, especially with Early Girl tomatoes. This technique encourages the plant to send roots deep to find existing moisture in soil that retains moisture, such as clayey soil.


The poor taste and lack of sugar in modern garden and commercial tomato varieties resulted from breeding tomatoes to ripen uniformly red. This change occurred after discovery of a mutant "u" phenotype in the mid 20th century that ripened "u"niformly. This was widely cross-bred to produce red fruit without the typical green ring around the stem on uncross-bred varieties. Prior to general introduction of this trait, most tomatoes produced more sugar during ripening, and were sweeter and more flavorful.
Evidence has been found that 10–20% of the total carbon fixed in the fruit can be produced by photosynthesis in the developing fruit of the normal U phenotype. The u genetic mutation encodes a factor that produces defective chloroplasts with lower density in developing fruit, resulting in a lighter green colour of unripe fruit, and repression of sugars accumulation in the resulting ripe fruit by 10–15%. Perhaps more important than their role in photosynthesis, the fruit chloroplasts are remodelled during ripening into chlorophyll-free chromoplasts that synthesize and accumulate the carotenoids lycopene, β-carotene, and other metabolites that are sensory and nutritional assets of the ripe fruit. The potent chloroplasts in the dark-green shoulders of the U phenotype are beneficial here, but have the disadvantage of leaving green shoulders near the stems of the ripe fruit, and even cracked yellow shoulders, apparently because of oxidative stress due to overload of the photosynthetic chain in direct sunlight at high temperatures. Hence genetic design of a commercial variety that combines the advantages of types u and U requires fine tuning, but may be feasible.
Furthermore, breeders of modern tomato cultivars typically strive to produce tomato plants exhibiting improved yield, shelf life, size, and tolerance/resistance to various environmental pressures, including disease. However, these breeding efforts have yielded unintended negative consequences on various tomato fruit attributes. For instance, linkage drag is a phenomenon that has been responsible for alterations in the metabolism of the tomato fruit. Linkage drag describes the introduction of an undesired trait or allele into a plant during backcrossing. This trait/allele is physically linked (or is very close) to the desired allele along the chromosome. In introducing the beneficial allele, there exists a high likelihood that the poor allele is also incorporated into the plant. Thus, breeding efforts attempting to enhance certain traits (for example: larger fruit size) have unintentionally altered production of chemicals associated with, for instance, nutritional value and flavor.
Breeders have turned to using wild tomato species as a source of alleles for the introduction of beneficial traits into modern tomato varieties. For example, wild tomato relatives may possess higher amounts of fruit solids (which are associated with greater sugar content) or resistance to diseases caused by microbes, such as resistance towards the early blight pathogen Alternaria solani. However, this tactic has limitations, for the incorporation of certain traits, such as pathogen resistance, can negatively impact other favorable phenotypes, such as fruit production.


The tomato is grown worldwide for its edible fruits, with thousands of cultivars. A fertilizer with an NPK ratio of 5–10–10 is often sold as tomato fertilizer or vegetable fertilizer, although manure and compost are also used. On average there are 150,000 seeds in a pound of tomato seeds.


Tomato cultivars vary widely in their resistance to disease. Modern hybrids focus on improving disease resistance over the heirloom plants.
Various forms of mildew and blight are common tomato afflictions, which is why tomato cultivars are often marked with a combination of letters that refer to specific disease resistance. The most common letters are: LB – late blight, V – verticillium wilt, F – fusarium wilt strain I, FF – fusarium wilt strain I and II, N – nematodes, T – tobacco mosaic virus, and A – alternaria.
A common tomato disease is tobacco mosaic virus. Handling cigarettes and other infected tobacco products can transmit the virus to tomato plants.
Another particularly dreaded disease is curly top, carried by the beet leafhopper, which interrupts the lifecycle. As the name implies, it has the symptom of making the top leaves of the plant wrinkle up and grow abnormally.
Bacterial wilt is another common disease impacting yield. Wang et al., 2019 find phage combination therapies reduce that impact, sometimes by reducing bacterial abundance and sometimes by selecting for resistant but slow growing genetics.


Some common tomato pests are the tomato bug, stink bugs, cutworms, tomato hornworms and tobacco hornworms, aphids, cabbage loopers, whiteflies, tomato fruitworms, flea beetles, red spider mite, slugs, and Colorado potato beetles. The tomato russet mite, Aculops lycopersici, feeds on foliage and young fruit of tomato plants, causing shrivelling and necrosis of leaves, flowers, and fruit, possibly killing the plant.
After an insect attack tomato plants produce systemin, a plant peptide hormone. Systemin activates defensive mechanisms, such as the production of protease inhibitors to slow the growth of insects. The hormone was first identified in tomatoes, but similar proteins have been identified in other species since.


Although not a disease as such, irregular supplies of water can cause growing or ripening fruit to split. Besides cosmetic damage, the splits may allow decay to start, although growing fruits have some ability to heal after a split. In addition, a deformity called cat-facing can be caused by pests, temperature stress, or poor soil conditions. Affected fruit usually remains edible, but its appearance may be unsightly.


Tomatoes serve, or are served by, a large variety of companion plants.
Among the most famous pairings is the tomato plant and carrots; studies supporting this relationship have produced a popular book about companion planting, Carrots Love Tomatoes.
The devastating tomato hornworm has a major predator in various parasitic wasps, whose larvae devour the hornworm, but whose adult form drinks nectar from tiny-flowered plants like umbellifers. Several species of umbellifer are therefore often grown with tomato plants, including parsley, Queen Anne's lace, and occasionally dill. These also attract predatory flies that attack various tomato pests.
Borage is thought to repel the tomato hornworm moth.
Plants with strong scents, like alliums (onions, chives, garlic), mints (basil, oregano, spearmint) and French marigold, (Tagetes patula) are thought to mask the scent of the tomato plant, making it harder for pests to locate it, or to provide an alternative landing point, reducing the odds of the pests from attacking the correct plant. These plants may also subtly affect the flavor of tomato fruit. Basil is popularly recommended as a companion plant to the tomato. Common claims are that basil may deter pests or improve tomato flavor. However, in double-blind taste tests, basil did not significantly affect the taste of tomatoes when planted adjacent to them.
Tomato plants can protect asparagus from asparagus beetles, because they contain solanine that kills this pest, while asparagus plants contain Asparagusic acid that repels nematodes known to attack tomato plants. Marigolds also repel nematodes.


In the wild, original state, tomatoes required cross-pollination; they were much more self-incompatible than domestic cultivars. As a floral device to reduce selfing, the pistil of wild tomatoes extends farther out of the flower than today's cultivars. The stamens were, and remain, entirely within the closed corolla.
As tomatoes were moved from their native areas, their traditional pollinators (probably a species of halictid bee) did not move with them. The trait of self-fertility became an advantage, and domestic cultivars of tomato have been selected to maximize this trait.
This is not the same as self-pollination, despite the common claim that tomatoes do so. That tomatoes pollinate themselves poorly without outside aid is clearly shown in greenhouse situations, where pollination must be aided by artificial wind, vibration of the plants (one brand of vibrator is a wand called an "electric bee" that is used manually), or more often today, by cultured bumblebees. The anther of a tomato flower is shaped like a hollow tube, with the pollen produced within the structure, rather than on the surface, as in most species. The pollen moves through pores in the anther, but very little pollen is shed without some kind of externally-induced motion. The ideal vibratory frequencies to release pollen grains are provided by an insect, such as a bumblebee, or the original wild halictid pollinator, capable of engaging in a behavior known as buzz pollination, which honey bees cannot perform. In an outdoors setting, wind or animals usually provide sufficient motion to produce commercially viable crops.


Pollination and fruit formation depend on meiosis. Meiosis is central to the processes by which diploid microspore mother cells within the anther give rise to haploid pollen grains, and megaspore mother cells in ovules that are contained within the ovary give rise to haploid nuclei. Union of haploid nuclei from pollen and ovule (fertilization) can occur either by self- or cross-pollination. Fertilization leads to the formation of a diploid zygote that can then develop into an embryo within the emerging seed. Repeated fertilizations within the ovary are accompanied by maturation of the ovary to form the tomato fruit.
Homologs of the recA gene, including rad51, play a key role in homologous recombinational repair of DNA during meiosis. A rad51 homolog is present in the anther of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum), suggesting that recombinational repair occurs during meiosis in tomato.


Tomatoes are often grown in greenhouses in cooler climates, and cultivars such as the British 'Moneymaker' and a number of cultivars grown in Siberia are specifically bred for indoor growing. In more temperate climates, it is not uncommon to start seeds in greenhouses during the late winter for future transplant.
Greenhouse tomato production in large-acreage commercial greenhouses and owner-operator stand-alone or multiple-bay greenhouses is on the increase, providing fruit during those times of the year when field-grown fruit is not readily available. Smaller sized fruit (cherry and grape), or cluster tomatoes (fruit-on-the-vine) are the fruit of choice for the large commercial greenhouse operators while the beefsteak varieties are the choice of owner-operator growers.
Hydroponic technique is often used in hostile growing environments, as well as high-density plantings.


To facilitate transportation and storage, tomatoes are often picked unripe (green) and ripened in storage with ethylene.
A machine-harvestable variety of tomato (the "square tomato") was developed in the 1950s by University of California, Davis's Gordie C. Hanna, which, in combination with the development of a suitable harvester, revolutionized the tomato-growing industry. This type of tomato is grown commercially near plants that process and can tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. They are harvested when ripe and are flavorful when picked. They are harvested 24 hours a day, seven days a week during a 12- to 14-week season, and immediately transported to packing plants, which operate on the same schedule. California is a center of this sort of commercial tomato production and produces about a third of the processed tomatoes produced in the world.
In 1994, Calgene introduced a genetically modified tomato called the FlavrSavr, which could be vine ripened without compromising shelf life. However, the product was not commercially successful, and was sold only until 1997.


The world dedicated 4.8 million hectares in 2012 for tomato cultivation and the total production was about 161.8 million tonnes.
The average world farm yield for tomato was 33.6 tonnes per hectare, in 2012.
Tomato farms in the Netherlands were the most productive in 2012, with a nationwide average of 476 tonnes per hectare, followed by Belgium (463 tonnes per hectare) and Iceland (429 tonnes per hectare).


As of 2008, the heaviest tomato harvested, weighed 3.51 kg (7 lb 12 oz), was of the cultivar "Delicious", and was grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986. The largest tomato plant grown was of the cultivar "Sungold" and reached 19.8 m (65 ft) in length, grown by Nutriculture Ltd (UK) of Mawdesley, Lancashire, UK, in 2000.
A massive "tomato tree" growing inside the Walt Disney World Resort's experimental greenhouses in Lake Buena Vista, Florida may have been the largest single tomato plant in the world. The plant has been recognized as a Guinness World Record Holder, with a harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes and a total weight of 522 kg (1,151 lb). It yielded thousands of tomatoes at one time from a single vine. Yong Huang, Epcot's manager of agricultural science, discovered the unique plant in Beijing, China. Huang brought its seeds to Epcot and created the specialized greenhouse for the fruit to grow. The vine grew golf ball-sized tomatoes, which were served at Walt Disney World restaurants. The tree developed a disease and was removed in April 2010 after about 13 months of life.


In 2020, world production of tomatoes was 187 million tonnes, with China accounting for 35% of the total, followed by India, Turkey, and the United States as major producers (table).


Though it is botanically a berry, a subset of fruit, the tomato is a vegetable for culinary purposes because of its savoury flavour (see above).
Although tomatoes originated in the Americas, they have become extensively used in Mediterranean cuisine. Ripe tomatoes contain significant umami flavor and they are a key ingredient in pizza, and are commonly used in pasta sauces.

They are also used in gazpacho (Spanish cuisine) and pa amb tomàquet (Catalan cuisine).
The tomato is now grown and eaten around the world. It is used in diverse ways, including raw in salads or in slices, stewed, incorporated into a wide variety of dishes, or processed into ketchup or tomato soup. Unripe green tomatoes can also be breaded and fried, used to make salsa, or pickled. Tomato juice is sold as a drink, and is used in cocktails such as the Bloody Mary.


Tomatoes keep best unwashed at room temperature and out of direct sunlight. It is not recommended to refrigerate them as this can harm the flavour. Tomatoes stored cold tend to lose their flavour permanently.
Storing stem down can prolong shelf life, as it may keep from rotting too quickly.
Tomatoes that are not yet ripe can be kept in a paper bag till ripening.
Tomatoes are easy to preserve whole, in pieces, as tomato sauce or paste by home canning. They are acidic enough to process in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as most vegetables require. The fruit is also preserved by drying, often in the sun, and sold either in bags or in jars with oil.


The leaves, stem, and green unripe fruit of the tomato plant contain small amounts of the alkaloid tomatine, whose effect on humans has not been studied. They also contain small amounts of solanine, a toxic alkaloid found in potato leaves and other plants in the nightshade family. However, solanine concentrations in foliage and green fruit are generally too small to be dangerous unless large amounts are consumed—for example, as greens.
Small amounts of tomato foliage are sometimes used for flavoring without ill effect, and the green fruit of unripe red tomato varieties is sometimes used for cooking, particularly as fried green tomatoes. There are also tomato varieties with fully ripe fruit that is still green. Compared to potatoes, the amount of solanine in unripe green or fully ripe tomatoes is low. However, even in the case of potatoes, while solanine poisoning resulting from dosages several times the normal human consumption has been demonstrated, actual cases of poisoning from excessive consumption of potatoes are rare.
Tomato plants can be toxic to dogs if they eat large amounts of the fruit, or chew plant material.


Tomatoes were linked to seven Salmonella outbreaks between 1990 and 2005, and may have been the cause of a salmonellosis outbreak causing 172 illnesses in 18 US states in 2006. The 2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak caused the temporary removal of tomatoes from stores and restaurants across the United States and parts of Canada, although other foods, including jalapeño and serrano peppers, may have been involved.


A tomato is 95% water, contains 4% carbohydrates and less than 1% each of fat and protein (table). 100 g of raw tomatoes supply 18 kilocalories and are a moderate source of vitamin C (17% of the Daily Value), but otherwise have no significant nutrient content (table).


There is no conclusive evidence to indicate that the lycopene in tomatoes or in supplements affects the onset of cardiovascular diseases or cancer.
In the United States, supposed health benefits of consuming tomatoes, tomato products or lycopene to affect cancer cannot be mentioned on packaged food products without a qualified health claim statement. In a scientific review of potential claims for lycopene favorably affecting DNA, skin exposed to ultraviolet radiation, heart function and vision, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that the evidence for lycopene having any of these effects was inconclusive.


The Potato Tuber moth (Phthorimaea operculella) is an oligophagous insect that prefers to feed on plants of the family Solanaceae such as tomato plants. Female P. operculella use the leaves to lay their eggs and the hatched larvae will eat away at the mesophyll of the leaf.