The cultivated tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, is grown worldwide for its fruits.Tomatoes are native to South America, but were brought to Europe sometime in the 1500s, where they soon became popular and were exported around the world (Eu-Sol: Tomato history).For a long time tomatoes were known by the name Lycopersicon esculentum, but recent work by scientists has shown that they are really part of the genus Solanum - as Linnaeus recognised when he first described the species. Today scientists and plant breeders all use the name Solanum lycopersicum for the cultivated tomato.