Tomatoes
Posted on August 12, 2009
The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, syn. Lycopersicon lycopersicum & Lycopersicon esculentum) is a herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family that is typically cultivated for the purpose of harvesting its fruit for human consumption. Savory in flavor, the fruit of most varietals ripens to a distinctive red color. Tomato plants typically reach to 1-3 metres (3-10 ft) in height, and have a weak, woody stem that often vines over other plants. The leaves are 10-25 centimetres (4-10 in) long, odd pinnate, with 5-9 leaflets on petioles, each leaflet up to 8 centimetres (3 in) long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. The flowers are 1-2 centimetres (0.4-0.8 in) across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of 3-12 together. It is a perennial, often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual.
(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatoes)