Thursday, April 15, 2010

 

Tonadose des Conores?

I obtained seeds for this year's vegetable garden from my son, who in turn bought them from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. One of the tomato varieties is Tonadose des Conores, supposed to be "an endangered heirloom cherry tomato from France".

This name looks suspicious to me. Despite 119 Google hits for Tonadose des Conores, the correct name is actually Tomadose des Comores (692 Google hits). For the word tomadose, see André Charrier et al., edd., Tropical Plant Breeding (Montpellier: Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, 2001), p. 527 (on Lycopersicon):
The form with small fruit, L. esculentum var. cerasiforme, or cherry tomato, is the only wild form of the genus and is encountered both in South America and beyond (Rick, 1986). It is known in the Antilles and French Guyana under the name tomadose and is cultivated in the warm humid season. Cultivated tomato is probably a domesticated form of this wild species.
Comores is the French name for The Comoros in the Indian Ocean.

English tomato comes ultimately from Nahuatl tomatl. Nahuatl is an Aztec language.

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