Question

Which plant is described by these clues? Its genus name is an old Latin word of uncertain root, tied by some writers to the sun and by others to the soothing, sleep-bringing power of the family's poisons. A visiting bee must vibrate each bloom at just the right pitch before pollen will spill from the {poricidal} pores at the tips of its clustered {anthers}. The five petals fuse at the base and then flare back into a flat, reflexed star, from which a cone of yellow {anthers} juts like a beak above the {corolla}. The species epithet joins the Greek words for wolf and peach, an old name hinting at fruit once feared as dangerous. Its {pinnate} leaves divide into several jagged, coarsely toothed leaflets that give off a sharp green scent when bruised. Every ripe fruit is botanically a {berry}, a pulpy case split into several seed-filled {locules}, while the unripe fruit and foliage carry bitter {alkaloids} such as solanine. A vigorous {indeterminate} climber, it keeps lengthening and flowering all season, reaching 6 to 10 feet (1.8 to 3 m) on a sturdy stake or cage. Its wild ancestors trace to the coastal deserts and Andean foothills of western South America, in present-day Peru and Ecuador. This old heirloom, grown since the 1700s, hangs its branched trusses with dozens of small, bright yellow fruits shaped like tiny pears, each about 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) long. Sliced into salads or roasted whole, its sweet, low-acid golden fruit is a garden favourite that all but names this pear-shaped, sun-loving kitchen staple.

Accepted Answer

Solanum lycopersicum 'Yellow Pear'

Name That Plant #038