Wild Galapagos Tomatoes

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Working on updating the info on my wild tomato wiki. I started by just copying the info from wikipedia. Wikipedia is WAY out of date and has large holes of missing information. Also i realized the photo for S. cheesmaniae was actually for S. galapagense. So i fixed that. Have other photos i'm planning on putting on the pages showing differences in leaves, fruits, etc.

biolumo.com/index.php?title=Tomato_Breeding_Database/Solanum_cheesmaniae

created a page for S. galapagense. It is in rough shape right now.
biolumo.com/index.php?title=Tomato_Breeding_Database/Solanum_galapagense

If anyone wants to help include your own pictures and/or track down good research articles from Google Scholar search for disease resistance information i would be thankful.

p.s. Most of the photos of the leaves of S. cheesmaniae show leaves with serrated edges similar to domestic tomatoes, though different. S. cheesmaniae is supposed to have lots of genetic variation so this is not unexpected. However the accessions i grew all has leaves nearly identical to the pimpinellifolium plants i grew with smooth leaves with a sprawling growth habit. S. galapagense on the other hand was very different having a soft bushy growth habit with frilly leaves.

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

Something interesting about these two species is that both are probably salt tolerant, with S. galapagense being possibly the most.

S. galapagense has whitefly resistance whereas S. cheesmaniae does not.

Both have small domestic-like flowers. Seem to be daylength sensitive.

[walt]

Back in my Peace Corps days, I was asked to develope a more salt tolerant tomato for the Ngigmi are of Niger.  The ground there was white with salt crystals, and tomotoes just wouldn't grow.
So I ordered S. cheesmaniae from Dr. Rick, and I collected a soil sample from the Ngigmi area to see what level of salt concentraion I had to deal with.  About the time the S. cheesmaniae seeds arrived, the soil test came back.  The soil was actually very low in salt, and all other soluables.  Add sheep and goat manure and tomatoes will thrive Dr. Brown said.  He later headed the soil department at Purdue U.
So I never made a single cross in this breeding program.  Never even planted the S. cheesmaniae seeds.  Yet it was the most successful breeding program I ever did.  They had tomatoes growing in Ngigmi in only 3 months.  I'm still proud of that project.  Don't try to solve a problem with genetics if it isn't a genetic problem!