A tomato from the Galapagos Islands?

Those of us who have met Food Garden Group member Max K know that he likes to make a joke now and then, so when he turned up at one of our food garden visits with a tomato plant 'rumoured to be from the Galapagos Islands', we had a bit of a laugh.



The Galapagos Islands are distributed on either side of the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, over 900 kilometres west of South America.  They are known for their marine iguanas, large turtles, volcanic activity, Charles Darwin and unique wildlife and plants.  The islands have a population of around 25000 people and are mostly a national park, so what were the chances of someone on the islands developing and growing their own tomato variety?

After coming home and planting 'the tomato rumoured to be from the Galapagos Islands' (it became mine because everyone else already had enough tomato plants) I searched on the internet to see whether there could be any truth in this tall story.

Well it turned out that this tall story was completely true.

The plant I took home, with small leaves and an unusual number of flowers for its small size, looked precisely like the photos I found of Lycopersicon cheesmanii or Galapagos Island Wild Tomato.

This is not an heirloom.  It is a native of the Galapagos Islands.  It grows in the wild in the national park that covers most of the islands.   Its fruit is quite small, yellow-orange, quite tasty, and a favourite of the local Galapagos Island Turtles.

Meet the Galapagos Island tomato:

What a beautiful little truss

In July 2003 the American Journal of Botany had an in-depth article on Lycopersicon cheesmanii or Galapagos Island Wild Tomato (see http://www.amjbot.org/content/91/1/86.full ).  Here are some of the points made in the article:

• Like most of the Galapagos flora and fauna L. Cheesmanii has evolved in isolation from mainland species and has acquired characteristics unique in the genus, such as orange-red or orange-yellow fruits, yellow-green foliage, minute seed size, and exceptional seed dormancy.

• Some forms of L.cheesmanii that thrive near the coastline in extremely arid and saline environments are sources of tolerance to salinity and drought.  This tomato is also of great interest as it has high sugar and beta-carotene contents.

• Other L.cheesmanii accessions are resistant or tolerant to pathogens such as Alternaria alternata  or tomato yellow leaf curl virus.

• Isolation from the continent and the regular ecological and climatological conditions under which the Galapagos tomatoes have evolved give them a high value both as genetic resources for the improvement of cultivated tomatoes and for the study of the evolution of an island endemic from continental ancestors.

• Unfortunately, recent introductions of animals, particularly feral donkeys and goats, and human activity, have put  L.cheesmanii at risk of extinction.  Conservation of L.cheesmanii is urgently needed.  On islands with feral goats and donkeys, such as Santiago and Baltra, we could only find plants on cliffs and other places inaccessible to these animals.

Max K got the seeds from a friend he tells him he got it from The Diggers Club.  There was no sign of the tomato on the Diggers Club site, but the fact that the seed turned up in Australia, that a number of internet sites report growing the variety (see eg. http://tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=15986 ) and that I found that it is for sale on an American site (http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/content/lycopersicon-cheesmanii.htm ) makes me optimistic that the species now, a decade after the report was written, is safe from extinction.

Lycopersicon cheesmanii or Galapagos Island Wild Tomato can now be used to develop salt and tomato-yellow-leaf-curl resistant new tomato varieties and is therefore a really important find.

The lesson we can learn from the story of the Galapagos Island tomato is that effective protection of original plant habitats around the world is crucial.  Destruction of natural environments by carelessness or for short-term gain may for ever make extinct species that could one day contribute to our survival and wellbeing.

Thank you Max K for bringing your 'rumoured to be Galapagos Island tomato' to one of our food-garden visits.