Chara nal varieties of tomato is increasing, notably for specia r or somebody to be honored, or make reference to its place or country of origin, nd/or to a particular attribute (on many occasions exaggerated), like the color .   rk, 59 heirloom tomatoes from North America were grown in Valencia, Spain, weig e fruit, shape and ribbing) using IPGRI descriptors (1996) . tion was found within each variety, probably as a consequence of of variation among varieties was found for the traits studied and, consequently, several Although mean fruit weight ranged between 5 g (‘Moira’) and 265 g (‘Orange Strawberry’), most varieties were considered as small - medium sized (<100 g) . Regarding fruit predominant color, most varieties were red - colored, although other colors, like yellow, orange, pink, green, as well as intermediate colors, were also present (Table 1) . In most varieties, ripe fruit color was uniform, though variegated (e . g . ‘Green Zebra’) or bicolor (e . g . ‘Regina´s Bicolor’) varieties were also found . In addition, variation among varieties was found within each state of the color descriptor . Thus, within “red” varieties we observed from pale red (e . g . ‘Mankin Plum’) to dark red (e . g . thosewith the adjective “black”) varieties . The same was found in the “yellow” group: from pale colored (e . g . ‘Ivory Egg’ or ‘White Queen’) to golden yellow (e . g . ‘Yellow Pear’)varieties . Such variation within the same state of the color descriptor suggests the use of methods that allow an objective description of colors, like the “CIE L*, a*, b color space” . This would give more precise information on the color of each variety . The most usual fruit shapes were flattened and rounded, though several elongated, heart - shaped, squared and pyriform varieties were also found (Table 1) . As for fruit color, variation within a particular descriptor state was found .   Approximately, one fourth of the varieties had intermediate - strong ribbing (Table 1), which could even result in fruits that looked as if they were malformed, like in ‘Purple Calabash’ . The other varieties showed weak or no ribbing . In general, little variation was found for the degree of ribbing among fruits from the same variety . However, some varieties like ‘Buckbee´s New 50 Day’ or‘Mikado’ yielded fruits rangi ng from no ribbed to strongly ribbed . In these varieties, the stronger ribbing was found in fruits originated from fasciated flowers . cterization of North American heirloom tomatoes   A . Rodríguez - Burruezo, J . Prohens, E . Solbes, P . Fernández de Córdova, F . Nuez Centro de Conservación y Mejora de la Agrodiversidad Valenciana, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera 14, 46022