Solanum pimpinellifolium Seeds | Red Currant Tomato Lycopersicon
LATIN NAME: Solanum pimpinellifolium
COMMON NAME: Currant Tomato
Plant Profile
In the wild it grows along the dry Pacific slope of Peru and Ecuador, tolerating poor, salty, coastal soils where the cultivated tomato would fail. Its range even reaches the Galápagos, where it forms distinct island populations. Because it has travelled with people, it is also naturalised and sometimes weedy in the south-eastern United States, escaping from gardens into roadsides.
The leaves are finely cut and feathery, a trait that helps distinguish the species from cultivated tomatoes at a glance. This finely divided foliage is one of the morphological markers breeders use, along with the tiny fruit and the many-flowered truss, to tell S. pimpinellifolium from its larger-fruited cousin S. lycopersicum.
Plant breeders treat this species as a living toolbox. Its wild populations still carry resistance to pests and pathogens that have been bred out of uniform modern crops, and it crosses with the cultivated tomato closely enough to move those traits across.
In warm regions the plant self-sows readily and has established free-living populations, a reminder that it is still a wild species first. Gardeners who grow it should expect volunteers the following season unless the fruit is cleared before it drops.
The appeal in the kitchen is concentration. A currant tomato packs the sugar and acid of a full tomato into a pellet, and the long truss means a handful is always ready.
Because the fruit is mostly skin and a few seeds, its soluble solids (the Brix that measures sugar) run high, giving an intense, almost wine-like sweetness. Eaten straight from the truss it tastes nothing like a watery cherry tomato, which is why it has a devoted following among curious growers.
Science & Biotechnology
Among the documented resistances are tolerance to root-knot nematode and to certain foliar blights, plus a general toughness under heat and poor soil. Breeding programmes have tapped these genes to give commercial lines defence without chemical inputs, which is why seed banks maintain numerous accessions of the wild species.
Uses & Benefits
The plant is a sprawling, vigorous vine with finely divided, fern-like leaves quite unlike the broad foliage of a beefsteak. The flowers are the usual small yellow nightshade stars borne in loose clusters, and the fruits follow in drooping, branching trusses, each fruit a glossy red sphere no bigger than a peppercorn, thin-skinned and bursting with flavour. Left alone it runs and trails rather than stands.
The fruits are too small to cook down but perfect whole: scattered over a salad, floated on a summer soup, or pickled in a small jar. Their thin skins mean they pop easily, so they are best used fresh rather than handled roughly.
Growing from Seed
Treat it like a tomato but expect a longer, looser vine. It wants warmth to start and a tall support once it runs, and it is happier trailing than staked upright.
Sow the fine seed shallowly in warm trays and keep the medium warm until the seedlings appear; prick them into individual pots when they have two true leaves. Set the young plants into the garden once they carry four to five true leaves and stand roughly fifteen centimetres tall, spacing them forty centimetres apart and giving each a trellis or allowing it to spill from a hanging basket.
Tie the main stems to a string or let the trusses hang from a basket; either way, lift the growth off the ground early so the fruit stays clean and the air moves through. Water at the base, feed when the first trusses form, and expect a long, heavy crop that needs picking often to keep it coming. Close relatives worth a look include the Black Beauty Eggplant seed Solanum melongena and the Yellow Currant Tomato Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium ‘Yellow’.
Our Take
I grow red currant tomato as a tasting curiosity and a breeding reminder of where tomatoes came from. The yellow form in Yellow Currant Tomato Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium ‘Yellow’ is the one to plant beside it for a two-colour truss, and the Amish Paste Tomato Lycopersicon lycopersicum shows how far the fruit has been enlarged by selection.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Currant Tomato often pair it with these related subjects: