I've seen "ridged" or "ruffled" to describe toms like Costoluto Genovese or Zaptoc Pleated which has "pleated" in its name.

I likely have the scan of the pages on the internet. Just cant remember the file names I called the scans.

Back in the late 80's, I believe. descriptions for shape (and all kinds of other traits) were set for researchers from all over to have as a standard.

Ill try to find it but the scan is from a fairly hard to come by book from an International Symposium.

"Cylindrical"
"Square"
"Round"
"High Round"
are some shapes that come to mind.

It had listings for transervse and longitudinal
href="http://www-plb.ucdavis.edu/labs/rost/Tomato/Reproductive/anat.html">;(what do those terms mean?)
as well as shoulders, blossom scars, etc

I think I also sent copies at one time to Paul when he was developing his tomatodatabase site.

atash, which seed catalogs are you looking at?

I ask only b'c globe, bomb-shaped and many other words are used to describe shape at the retail sites I know of.

The long ones you refer to some call sausage shaped or elongated.

But I do disagree with your saying that most varieties that have those tiny fruits are called currant tomatoes. I find that not to be true . And it's really important to know which are and which are not currant varieties in terms of the blossom structure and possible chances for X pollination..

The word slicer, for instance, doesn't imply a shape, rather it implies a function. Slicer doesn't necessarily mean something to do with sandwiches.

There are varieties that are pear shaped that range from the small red and yellow pears to huge pear shaped ones around one pound.

The word beesteak has been discussed here and you might find it with a search, but eseentially all it means is a fruit that is longer than wider with few seed cavities and fewer seeds than most. That definition was made back in the 30's in the Michigan State Bulletin and still obtains today.

If you were to read some of the descriptions of tomato shapes for the many thousands of varieties listed in the SSE Yearbooks I think you'd be amazed at the range of words that have been and are used.

But in the non-commercial world with respect to home growers there are no standard descriptions, so if I were you I'd describe your own varieties as you see them.

If you want me to cut and paste what you wrote above and make some comments there I'd be glad to do that when I have more time.

So which catalogs/websites have you looked at for terms that are used in describing tomato shape? Just curious. ( smile)

Carolyn

Please don't misunderstand me; I'm claiming very little. I am repeating the language that I found in my perusal of seed catalogs and in other literature, such as a book I checked out from the library entitled "In praise of tomatoes", by Ronni Lundy.

I'm not claiming my sources are authoritative...I was only trying to get a sense of common usage.

I'm not claiming that tiny tomatoes ARE current tomatoes and especially not claiming that they are necessarily Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium.

I'm soliciting corrections and addenda. I am trying to use descriptions accurately and as close to common usage as possible. Where there are authoritative definitions I will be happy to mention them.

My website is being built up as an encyclopaedic reference on topics such as survival gardening. This has been quite an educational experience for ME. I've had food gardens off and on for my 43 years of existence, and I am still learning so many things the hard way...for example, I bought a "self-fertile apple"--says so right on the tag in big letters--and learned not only that apples are barely self-fertile, but this particular variety is poorly suited to home gardeners. It has been one disaster like that after another. If it would have come down to "survival", we would have starved waiting for my self-fertile apple to bear!

>>>The word beesteak has been discussed here and you might find it with a search, but eseentially all it means is a fruit that is longer than wider with few seed cavities and fewer seeds than most.

The American Heritage Dictionary simply says "Any of several varieties of tomato having large fruit with thick flesh."

In my ignorance, I assumed that size had something to do with the expression, and noticed a large number of modest-sized tomatoes being referred to as "beefsteaks" (Siletz, for example)--hence my suspicion that it is used somewhat loosely as a suggestive sales term.

"In praise of tomatoes" explicitly states that beefsteaks are "deep red"!! However, I have not noticed such a usage in seed catalogs. You can see why I might be confused, with such inconsistent usage.

When you figure out the shapes/sizes then there's the growth habit. Oh and then theres the color. Can't forget the foliage types. It's quite a lot of fun! :)

>>When you figure out the shapes/sizes then there's the growth habit.

I think I actually understand that one. The big difference is determinate vrs indeterminate--but then sometimes one sees "semi-determinate" and even more mysteriously, "semi-indeterminate"!

A precious few determinates are self-supporting. I suppose that's worth mentioning.

>>Oh and then theres the color.

I have some sense of that, but not enough. I know that taste and texture have a rough correlation with color, with intense colors having the most flavor, red-yellow bicolors often being rather sweet, while yellows and "whites" (off-whites) usually but not always being bland. I don't have a strong sense of what "black" tomatoes taste like, and I don't know if pinks taste any different than reds because pinks are very rare in my part of the world (I've never had one as an adult). I'm pretty sure "purples" aren't really purple, but they too are rare here so I've never seen one of those in person either.

>> Can't forget the foliage types.

I know "regular leaf", rugose, and "potato-leaved". I know some "regular leaf" are highly dissected and ferny-looking. I also know that reputedly rugose and "potato-leaved" are more resistent to certain foliar diseases.

I like those secular shaped, beefsteak sized maters that weight 8 to 10 ounces.........you know, the ones that are deep enuf pink to call them red. And if they have a old timey beefsteak flavor, that's a plus too.

Funny to say, but I like those big ratty catfaced ones... they generally are the first to arrive in my garden (due to low temps when pollinating - I hear). They taste sooo good after having NOTHING all winter... And of course the oxhearts -gotta love an oxheart tom! :)