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 Valencia, Spain . The interest in heirloom or traditio lty markets and for organic agriculture (Nuez, 1995) . North America is home to an important array of heirloom varieties of tomato . Some of them were introduced by European inmigrants, while others are the result of the selection by growers, gardeners and local plant breeders interested in developing tomatoes with improved taste but also with distinctive traits, like unusual shapes and colors (Male, 1999) . Many of these varieties are named after its breede a In this wo under greenhouse conditions and were characterized by four fruit attributes (mean fruit ht, predominant color of rip With these data, the tomato varieties have been classified into groups (Table 1) .   In general, low varia the high degree of homozygosis and purity of these materials . On the contrary, a high degree different morphotypes could be distinguished (Table 1) .  

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