Species
+

Solanum lycopersicum L.

Garden Tomato, Tamati, Tomate (DE); Tomato (EN); Tomatera (ES), Tomato

Climate known 75 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The tomato is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from western South America, and may have been domesticated there, in Mexico, or in Central America. The Spanish introduced tomatoes to Eurasia in the Columbian exchange in the 16th century.

Text from Wikipedia, “Tomato”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Solanum

Solanum is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant. It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae, comprising around 1,500 species. It also contains the so-called horse nettles, as well as numerous plants cultivated for their ornamental flowers and fruit.

Text from Wikipedia, “Solanum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Peru
Wild records
29 in range· 21 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Feb, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1353mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 192 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (November to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1353 mm a year, wettest March at 192 mm, driest July at 41 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as ? humboltii Willd.; Amatula flava Medik.; Amatula rubra Medik.; Lycopersicon cerasiforme Dunal; Lycopersicon cerasiforme var. cognitum Mazk. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (November to April at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (951 mm of 1353 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.3 °C against a yearly mean of 20.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1353 mm a year, wettest March at 192 mm, driest July at 41 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1353 mm a year at the habitat, 951 mm of it November to April. Wettest month March at 192 mm, driest July at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 36 mm to 3073 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 14.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 14.4 °C, the absolute minimum 13.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.1 °C in August (across the envelope cells 4.6 °C to 20.7 °C), warmest day 24.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jul to 25 °C in Feb; mean night from 15 °C in Aug to 20 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 1353 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 28 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°26.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–37RH 64–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 28 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 13–2925 / 13–2925 / 13–2924 / 13–2823 / 13–2822 / 12–2822 / 12–2823 / 13–2923 / 13–3024 / 13–2924 / 13–2924 / 13–29
Night °C20 / 7–2220 / 7–2220 / 7–2219 / 6–2217 / 5–2116 / 5–2115 / 4–2015 / 5–2115 / 5–2116 / 6–2217 / 6–2218 / 7–22
Rain mm173 / 3–360176 / 5–297192 / 4–322127 / 3–28479 / 2–22342 / 2–20541 / 2–17948 / 3–13276 / 3–160116 / 2–249133 / 3–281150 / 3–290
DLI34 / 31–4133 / 30–4032 / 29–3931 / 27–3730 / 26–3528 / 24–3329 / 25–3533 / 30–3836 / 32–4137 / 31–4336 / 29–4435 / 30–43
RH %69 / 62–7169 / 63–7269 / 65–7169 / 63–7267 / 60–7367 / 59–7365 / 58–7364 / 57–7265 / 58–7267 / 61–7268 / 62–7269 / 63–72

Each figure is the median across the 28 grid cells holding the 29 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2025:2050 (-11.275, -77.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 28 distinct grid cells holding the 29 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2025:2050 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -11.50_-77.500, lapse-corrected +40 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 264 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativePeru· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Belarus, Baltic States, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Selvagens, Benin, Burkina, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Krasnoyarsk, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Nepal, Pakistan, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Vietnam, Jawa, Philippines, Christmas I., Chatham Is., New Zealand North, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Alaska, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Québec, Montana, Oregon, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Northwest, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos
Kew's description“scrambling subshrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-12.099, -77.033 · in the densest population, 11 records (38% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 29 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 21 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 1509 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 29 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Solanum lycopersicumSolanum lycopersicumSolanum lycopersicumSolanum lycopersicumSolanum lycopersicumSolanum lycopersicumSolanum lycopersicumSolanum lycopersicum

Photographs: (c) Георгий Виноградов (Georgy Vinogradov), some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Oscar Alejandro Morales Juárez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Solanum lycopersicum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The tomato genome sequence provides insights into fleshy fruit evolution
Hideki Hirakawa, Erika Asamizu, K Shirasawa, Sachiko Isobe (2012) · Nature
Cross Talk in Defense Signaling
Annemart Koornneef, Corné M. J. Pieterse (2008) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Efficient Gene Editing in Tomato in the First Generation Using the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-Associated9 System
Christopher D. Brooks, Vladimir Nekrasov, Zachary B. Lippman, Joyce Van Eck (2014) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
A MicroRNA Superfamily Regulates Nucleotide Binding Site–Leucine-Rich Repeats and Other mRNAs
P. V. Shivaprasad, Ho‐Ming Chen, Kanu Patel, Donna M. Bond (2012) · The Plant Cell
A Multipurpose Toolkit to Enable Advanced Genome Engineering in Plants
Tomáš Čermák, Shaun J. Curtin, Javier Gil‐Humanes, Radim Čegan (2017) · The Plant Cell
The Tomato Aux / IAA Transcription Factor IAA9 Is Involved in Fruit Development and Leaf Morphogenesis
Hua Wang, Brian Jones, Zhengguo Li, Pierre Frasse (2005) · The Plant Cell
A Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolome Database for Tomato
Sofia Moco, R.J. Bino, Oscar Vorst, H. A. Verhoeven (2006) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Ethylene control of fruit ripening: revisiting the complex network of transcriptional regulation
Mingchun Liu, Julien Pirrello, Christian Chervin, Jean‐Paul Roustan (2015) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Solanum 13 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 140 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.