Solanum pennellii
 

LYC 1831, Solanum pennellii. It's growing the least vigorously for me of the wild species. I suppose that I'm way over-watering it.
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/solanum-pennellii.jpg[/IMG]

Flower of LYC 1831, Solanum pennellii. Rather than having an "anther cone" , it has an "anther cylinder". The anthers are not fully joined together. The ends of the cylinder are open so that pollen can easily leave. The stigma is exerted. The flowers are located on an inflorescence high above the foliage. Just the kind of thing that I am looking for to contribute to a promiscuous pollination project.
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/solanum-pennellii-flower.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=joseph;562366]LYC 1831, Solanum pennellii. It's growing the least vigorously for me of the wild species. I suppose that I'm way over-watering it.
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/solanum-pennellii.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
:yes:
Give'm some Nitrogen, Joseph .

Solanum pennellii is the little tiny plant on the right edge of the trellis. They don't seem to be doing well under any of the conditions that I have planted them into. S. corneliomullerii is the plant in approximately the center of the photo.

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/solanum-corneliomullerii-and-pennellii.jpg[/IMG]

[quote="@imgrimmer"]I am really excited to see the fruits.[/quote]

Okay, lets see if my old Flickr account will work for these photos. I have since abandoned Photobucket since the new external link to photos must be paid for. The photos are still there on photobucket if you click on the link. If it works, i actually think i like the Flickr interface better. Not sure why i didn't switch back earlier.

Here are some photos of unripe F1 Solanum pennellii x domestic tomato fruits.

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4291/36092433086_333265a59e_k.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4305/36133951725_b07c55f7a5_k.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4292/36092446556_5e01780d6d_k.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4306/36133960595_04d21e13d9_k.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4330/35292132554_80e2329565_k.jpg[/IMG]

I cant wait until the F2 generation!

Fruits are expected to look like this when ripe:

[IMG]http://zamir.sgn.cornell.edu/Qtl/Wild/fruits.jpg[/IMG]

Keen101: Thanks for photos of the [Domestic X S. pennellii] cross.

I grew S. pennellii this summer. They didn't thrive for me. But I have some growing in pots that I brought inside for the winter which have some fruits on them. Perhaps there will be seeds. Daily misting of the plants seems to be important to growing them in my climate.

I also brought some F1:[domestic X S. habrochaites] hybrids inside for the winter. I'm using pollen from S. pennellii to attempt to pollinate them.

I guess in a way, it's a good thing they're small if you have to bring em indoors for the winter. ;)
Could pennellii be the tomato to grow in a spruce bog? :surprised: Sadly I doubt that too.

There are S. pennellii flowers on my indoor tomato plants, and flowers on a [domestic X S. habrochaites] cross, so I am attempting manual crosses between them.

I'm currently growing an F2 Pennellii hybrid indoors for the winter. It has beautiful potato leaves! and it has NO SMELL! does not smell like a wild tomato and does not smell like a regular tomato. In fact the leaves taste like spinach. Imagine that?! A tomato with edible foliage that you can use in a salad as a spinach substitute?!!

Using an OralB electric toothbrush. Think i have one fruit setting. Hoping it too is edible and leans more towards domestic tomatoes size and taste this time. Fingers crossed.

[IMG]https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4579/26539110739_802997409f_b.jpg[/IMG]

I don't know if you noticed, Joseph, but there are two Armenian tomatoes (Nver and Gandzak) on ScottinAtlanta's list that were developed by hybridization with distantly related species.

[url]http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=46176[/url]

I am curious about these myself, since I have no hope of ever working with wild spp. and can only hope to poach some of their traits from other people's work - as I think is the case with Beta orange tomatoes like Zolotoe Serdtse. Standing on shoulders of giants and all that. :)

[QUOTE=joseph;572656]Flower of LYC 1831, Solanum pennellii. Rather than having an "anther cone" , it has an "anther cylinder". The anthers are not fully joined together. The ends of the cylinder are open so that pollen can easily leave. The stigma is exerted. The flowers are located on an inflorescence high above the foliage. Just the kind of thing that I am looking for to contribute to a promiscuous pollination project.
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/solanum-pennellii-flower.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]

Oh, i forgot to mention... The F2 has unattached anther cone! They are all free! Just what you are looking for Joseph!

I'm growing Solanum pennellii again this year. This is the third year for me. They have not thrived for me, but last year they produced seeds. They seem to have little delicate root systems, and don't seem to do well in my potting or garden soil. Last year I had some success with keeping them in the greenhouse, and spraying them every day, because it seems like in their natural habitat they are watered by fog.

This spring, I transplanted seedlings into various types of soil, compost, sand, coir, etc. The most successful was a batch of compost made a couple of years ago from mostly squash fruits. The least successful was my standard coconut coir potting soil. Woot! perhaps S. pennellii will do better for me this year. I'm intending to grow them in pots in the greenhouse.

I'm also intending to attempt grafting S pennellii onto Jagodka root stocks. Jagodka grows vigorously and quickly for me and thrives in my garden soil.

I am growing Nver this year, pretty exciting about it, have never heard about it before I was offered seeds in a trade.

Joseph: Perhaps it takes a lot of water to produce a good-tasting tomato, but it seems that too much water lessens the flavor. Just curious about Dan Chitwood, now at MSU, who was mentioned in a National Geographic story in 2014. Have you any thoughts to share on his study toward producing a drought-resistant tomato plant. Perhaps it is smoke and mirrors. Have been unable to see, or print out any of his articles, including the one listed below. Coneva V, Frank MH, de Luis Balaguer MA, Li M, Sozzani R, Chitwood DH. (2017) Genetic architecture and molecular networks underlying leaf thickness in desert-adapted tomato Solanum pennellii. Plant Physiol. [Epub ahead of print]. DOI: [URL]https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.17.00790[/URL]. Pre-print: [URL]http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/111005[/URL]

Tomatoes tend towards being desert adapted species.

My understanding of the way California tomatoes are being grown, is that they are being grown in areas with a high water table, and they are tapping into the existing groundwater. Which is a different scenario than how we do dry-farming here in the mountain valleys, where there is no ground-water within reach, just residual moisture from the winter snows.

One time, I saw a volunteer tomato growing in the Nevada desert, in an area that gets around 9" of rain per year. It was growing near a juniper, which I'd expect to vigorously compete for water. There were ripe fruits on the plant.

Domestic tomato has been selected to do best when pampered with things like irrigation, so it has big lush leaves that require lots of water... Some of the wild species have traits that are more suitable for desert environments. For example, S galapagense, and S chilense have small leaves, a typical strategy of desert adapted plants. Some of the wild species have grayish leaves. Another typical adaptation to growing in the desert.

S pennellii, is a desert adapted plant, but adapted to a foggy desert, so it readily absorbs dew from it's leaves. Therefore, it tends to have a weak root system.

When I eventually start breeding for desert adapted tomatoes, my strategy is likely to include:[LIST][*]Select for frost tolerance, in order to extend the growing season in the spring when there is more winter-water in the soil.[*]Select for good growth and productivity in spite of the cold nights typical of deserts. Some of my tomatoes fold their leaves up at night. I suspect that protects against radiant cooling which it typical in deserts. [*]Select for self-incompatibility and promiscuous pollination, so that the genetics can rapidly reorganize themselves to adapt to desert conditions.[*]Select for weediness, and the ability to volunteer.[*]I suspect that they will self select for small, thick, compound leaves and gray looking foliage. Traits that are common in desert adapted plants. [*]I wonder if they will end up with really funky smelling foliage? Perhaps as a predator deterrent?[/LIST]
I thought that the most interesting line in the article was, "We [...] found increased mesophyll cell size and leaf ploidy levels, suggesting that endoreduplication underpins leaf thickness in tomato." Wow! Wow! Wow! So the thick leaves could be tetraploid, while the flower structure remains diploid. Wow! Wow! Wow!

Solanum pennellii
[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/solanum-pennellii-2018-04-29_640.jpg[/IMG]

To follow up on this thread... During 2018 I grew S pennellii again. They were planted into one gallon pots, in the variety of compost that they grew best in during early season trials. They did better than every before, and produced a good amount of seeds.

One plant had larger fruits than typical. I saved seed from that separately.

One plant was isolated from the rest of the S pennellii plants, and grown in an area with interspecies hybrids. Since S pennellii is self-incompatible and requires a pollinator, I'm looking forward to growing these out to see if they were pollinated by the interspecies hybrids.

This all is very interesting.. Flower diploid and leaf tetraploid? Exotic.. Which crosses with wild toms are most interesting in taste to you?

The offspring of the interspecies hybrids with S habrochaites are more consistently good tasting to me than the hybrids with S pennellii. The S pennellii crosses have produced some real spitters, and also some that are ambrosia. The S habrochaites crosses have produced some amazing flavors, but tend towards more middling. This year I'm expecting crosses that are [domestic X S pennellii] X [domestic X S habrochaites]. Mmmm mmmm mmmm!

:D I'm starting to be jelous.. :D Fingers crossed for some extra tasty toms Joseph, I will watch your threads here :)

Based on reports of disease resistance in these crosses, I distributed about 90 packets of seeds into areas where untreated tomatoes generally die of blights and diseases. We're expecting to find great blight-tolerance among the interspecies hybrids.

We are selecting for sweet, fruity, high ummami, tropical flavors. Nothing like the taste profile of domestic tomatoes. My personal intention is to cull anything that is red-fruited... Though I might spin the red-fruited off into another project.

Here's a flower from the cross of [domestic X S pennellii]. Woot! That is super promiscuous!!!! The anthers are arranged in a star, instead of a cone. The stigma is very exposed.

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/promiscuous-tomato-archetype-002.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/promiscuous-tomato-archetype-001.jpg[/IMG]

Another type of promiscuous flower from the S pennellii crosses: An anther cylinder, and the stigma very exposed.

[IMG]http://garden.lofthouse.com/images/tomato/pennellii-f2-flower-2018-05-07.jpg[/IMG]

This spring, I planted several hundred seeds of S pennellii or it's inter-species hybrids with domestic tomatoes (50% wild genes). So far they are growing great.

Over winter, we made back-cross hybrids that are 3/4 domestic, and 1/4 S pennellii. I also planted several hundred of these. We did careful screening of the pollen donors for promiscuous flowers, and self-incompatibility. I'm really looking forward to tasting those.