Biodiversity
An introduction to biodiversity.
A simple explanation of what biodiversity is, how we make sense of it and its importance to us. Plus an introduction to the biodiversity of potatoes and tomatoes.
Solanum pennellii
Quick description
A useful but inedible wild tomato with sticky green fruit, very different to the commercial tomato.
Appearance
Solanum pennellii is easy to recognise: the individual parts of its leaves are almost round, the stamens in the middle of the flowers have small hairs, and there are no long structures on the tips of the stamens like there are on other tomato species. It is the only species of tomato with asymmetrical flowers. One golden yellow petal is a bit bigger than the others, and the fused stamens are bent sideways. The plant is a herb up to 1 metre long, living for many years. Leaves are not as complicated as those of other tomatoes, the leaf edges are smooth or have large teeth. The fruits are green or white with purplish stripes, covered in small hairs with glands. The seeds are pale brown and also covered in hairs.
Taste / cooking
Solanum pennellii is not used as food. Its fruit smells soapy and contains chemicals similar to those that make cucumber taste in cucumbers. DNA from this species has helped scientists understand what regulates the amount of fruit a tomato produces.
Specific nutritional benefits
When Solanum pennellii is crossed with the commercial tomato, more ascorbic acid and beta carotene compounds are produced in the new plants.
Habitat / growing
Grows in South America, in Peru and Chile. It is an important part of the special type of vegetation called the “lomas vegetation”. It is common on sand near the sea or in rocky dry places in the hills, as far up as 2300 metres above sea level. It usually flowers when wet fog moves inland from the Pacific Ocean.
Stress tolerance
Unknown
Disease/pest resistance
Glands on the hairs produce chemicals (2,3,4-tri-O-acylated glucose esters) that trap insects and prevent them from eating the plant.
