Larry, go to heirloomtomatoes.net for Chuck's original description.
Gw, adaptation of varieties just doesn't happen in a few generations. Adaptated varieties, and not of tomatoes, are called landraces and it takes hundreds, yea thousands of years to adapt, as has been shown by many studies, especially those with Ethiopian grains.
If it's a sense of belonging that you're after does that mean belonging in the sense that it's only US originated heirloom stories that you're after?
Or in a larger sense of belonging in terms of ethnic differences per the backgrounds of most of us in the US.
Folks don't actually select for varieties specific for a region, with few exceptions. What happens is that tomato varieties can and do cross creating a hybrid. Then that hybrid has to be dehybridized to what's called the open pollinated (OP) state where it is genetically stable and all seeds of that OP sown will give rise to the same plant/fruit unless another X pollination occurs or a spontaneous mutation occurred.
The tremendous number of OP varieties known, probably around 12,000 or so, evolved primarily by X pollination and dehybridization for most, and secondarily by mutation.
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Carolyn
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