How to pronounce tomato in English: tomato, pronounced English [t?mɑ:t?] in British and [t?me?to?] in American.

Tomato is an annual herbaceous plant of the genus Solanum in the family Solanaceae, with plants up to 2 meters tall. Genetically modified tomatoes are bright red in color, hard and not easy to crack the fruit. Tomato stems are easy to fall; leaves are pinnately compound, the base is cuneate, more oblique, with irregular serration;

The corolla is rotate, yellow, the lobes are narrowly oblong; the berry is compressed globular or subglobose, fleshy and juicy, is orange or bright red, the surface is smooth, flowering and fruiting period of summer and fall; the seeds are yellow, covered with pilose.

Tomato is native to South America, the earliest is the wild berries of South America, people think its bright color has a poisonous, as it is "the fruit of the fox", only used for ornamental purposes, initially imported into China is also used as an ornamental plant, to the mid-to-late 19th century, the Chinese people began to eat tomatoes, and in Shanghai and other large cities began to large areas. The tomatoes were also used as an ornamental plant when they were first introduced to China.

The United States, the Soviet Union, Italy and China are the main producers, and tomatoes are cultivated in both the north and south of China, making them one of the most commonly cultivated fruits and vegetables in the world. Tomato is a temperature-loving crop, the adaptability of the soil is broader, but the demand for fertilizer is greater; poor flood tolerance, requiring good drainage conditions.

Tomatoes are rich in carotene, vitamin C and B vitamins, high nutritional value, both as a vegetable and as a fruit, both raw and cooked; tomatoes can be processed to make tomato sauce, tomato juice and tomato dices, etc.;

Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, a strong antioxidant capacity, can lower blood pressure, heat and detoxification effect, but also can be extracted as health care products. Unripe tomatoes can not be consumed, which contains an alkaloid component, too much consumption may lead to poisoning.

Tomato as a vegetable in China to get the promotion of planting is a very late thing, only about a hundred years of history. Tomatoes were introduced to the two regions of China around the time of the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, and spread to several regions, although cultivation was not widespread.

Or for ornamental or medicinal purposes, called the name is also relatively uniform, that is, "June persimmon" or "tomato", of which "tomato" in the process of dissemination has produced "Sifan persimmon", "Sifan persimmon", "Sifan persimmon", "Western persimmon", "Sifan persimmon" and other different variants.