Someone called James Sultana emailed us to ask: “Where can get some bush wild tomatoes”.
I was forced to reply in pedant mode:
Could you be a little bit more specific? What do you mean by a “bush
wild tomato”? A wild relative of the tomato? Or some other species
(maybe Australian?) that goes by that name?
Alas, Jim hadn’t entered his email correctly in our contact form, so my reply bounced right back. So, if you’re reading this, Jim, answer the question and we’ll do our best to help. And the rest of you, what might a “bush wild tomato” be?
We had the juice of “tree tomatoes” in rural Nicaragua. It was fantastic, citrusy, fruity, sweet, light…not tomatoey. What the hell was that?
@Julie – The plant most commonly known as Tree tomato I know as Cyphomandra betacea but I now see that Wikipedia wants to call it Solanum betaceum. I’m not sure about the current taxonomy, but I’ve grown it and I agree that it is a great fruit. In fact, there’s one in the front garden of a block of flats near where I used to live that nobody — except me — ever ate. Very good indeed. I’ve no idea why one doesn’t see it in trade, at least in warmer places.
Ooh, thanks. A few more years of global warming, and I can grow them here, currently zone 6!
Most of the wild type tomatoes I’ve grown are bushy in nature. If he’s interested in seeds of Matt’s Wild Cherry, he’s welcome to send me his address in an email to weblogq@patnsteph.net and I’ll get some out to him.