Tamarillo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Yellow and red tamarillos
|
||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||
| Cyphomandra betacea |
The Tamarillo, Tree Tomato, or Tomate de árbol (Cyphomandra betacea) belongs to the flowering plant family Solanaceae. It grows as a small tree or shrub, bearing edible egg-shaped fruit with a thin skin and a soft flesh (when ripe), with dark-colored seeds occupying about one third of the interior. The fruit closely resembles a tomato, hence its name. The tamarillo and tomato are in the same family, Solanaceae, but the tamarillo is in the genus Cyphomandra while the tomato is in the genus Solanum.
The fruit can be between 2 and 8 cm in length. They are held on the tree in clusters as are many other clustered fruit, such as cherries. The trees are grown from cuttings and are very frost-tender when young. They are shallow-rooted and respond to deep mulching and abundant water. The tree can grow to a little more than 6 meters but it is subject to wind damage and needs shelter. It will bear fruit after two years and a single mature tree in good soil will carry more fruit than a normal family can eat for about 3 months. When the tree is about 1 to 1.5 meters in height it is advisable to cut the roots on one side and lean the tree to the other (direction of the midday sun at about 30 to 45 degrees). This allows fruiting branches to grow from all along the trunk rather than just at the top.
The tamarillo is native to the Andes of Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia. It is cultivated in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Kenya, the United States and Venezuela. It is grown as a commercial crop for international export in New Zealand.
The fruit is eaten by scooping the flesh from a halved fruit but, in New Zealand, most children palpate the ripe fruit until it is soft then bite off the stem end and squeeze the flesh directly into their mouths. When lightly sugared and cooled, the flesh makes a refreshing breakfast dish. In addition, they give a unique flavor when compoted or added to stews and curries. They are also tasty and decorative in fresh salads. In Colombia, the tamarillo flesh is frequently combined with water and sugar in a blender to create a beverage.
 |
 |
