Tomato Advocacy - New Thinking in Nutrition

Author: Xu Shiwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: More precious than gold, the seeds of a ripe tomato can be cut open to reveal tiny seeds encapsulated in jelly-like gel. Under suitable conditions, each seed can grow into a tomato plant, producing more tomato fruits. To understand a tomato, one should first understand its seeds. Let's take a close look at the seeds of a tomato. Visually, tomato seeds are as small as sesame seeds, flat and round, with a light yellow color. Under a microscope, you can see countless fine, elongated hairs on the seed coat. When the seeds mature, their outer coat gradually hardens, like wearing armor. Don't underestimate this armor—it can limit the loss of moisture and gas inside the seed to some extent, serving to protect the seed. Next, you can carefully cut open its outer coat, and you will see the early life form of the tomato and the nutrients it stores for new life. We call this early life form the embryo, and the nutrients stored for new life are called the endosperm. When a seed sprouts, it first pushes out a small white tip from the seed's germination pore, like an infant's delicate milk teeth. This is the radicle, which will later become the root of the tomato. What follows are the plumule, cotyledons, and hypocotyl, which resemble an infant's tiny hands and feet, and will develop into the leaves and stems of the tomato.