Sunlight Tomato

If you don't eat all of your soup you're not getting any screen time before bed.

But maaarrrrmmm, I don't want to eat it! I don't want to glow! Capsa and I are playing hide and seek after this. She will see me if I'm glowing, then I will lose!

— Mother trying to get her children to eat some sunlight soup

Popular for its remarkable ability to illuminate those that consume it, sunlight tomatoes are grown all around Barbas, archipelago continent on Capepo. The flaky orange skin with pulsating yellow stripes make this fruit unmistakeable in a crop field. These tomato plants usually grow around three metres tall and require extra support to maintain said height. A single plant may produce as many as a hundred fruits in a single season.

Sunlight tomatoes are heavily featured in salads and cold meals around its native region. The slightly acidic flavour adds a warm kick to any meal, and is a popular staple.

Taxonomy

Sunlight tomatoes are in the genus Solanum, alongside other tomatoes, potatoes, and aubergines. This genus falls under Solanaceae, the nightshade family.

Anatomy

Sunlit Tomato by Mochi

Sunlight tomatoes have an unmistakeable hue, with shimmering golden skin. It peels off when ripened, after morphing from a dark green. The stem and stalk of the plant is a dark green, the main stalk splitting off into around thirty smaller parts. Each one grows about three fruit.

The flesh of this tomato is a white, with a pink placenta. The seeds are near invisible when inside the plant, darkening when detached from the placenta.

Some variants of these tomatoes have been cultivated to produce different colours. A paler version, colloquially referred to as the cloudy tomato, are popular around the Nimbian Islands.

Varieties

Cloudy

Cloudy variants have a whiter colouration, tasting lighter and creamier.

Platinum

Platinum variants are a shiny platinum colour, and difficult to keep alive.

Black-Spotted

Black-spotted variants have black or brown spots around the base of the tomato.

Kit

Kit variants are more elongated, with ridges.

Runner

Runner variants are slightly reddish. Named after their tendency to drop off their stalk and roll away.

Glassy

Glassy variants have a slight prismatic sheen to them. Best to wear sunglasses when harvesting.

Habitat

Sunburst Forest

Glamorous pink woodlands

A vibrant forest with pink and purple sunburst palms. Many unique native creatures, including cricket mosshogs and alacal burfs.

Native Range

Sunlight tomatoes are native to the Sunburst Forest, in the north of Masan Island. It is one of the biggest rainforests in northern Barbas, covering around seven hundred square kilometres.

This forest is home to a plethora of magical-dependent organisms. A prismatic sheen covers this islands, which magnifies any magical energy within. As a result many creatures undergo a magical evolution, which modifies their genetic makeup to the point they become completely new species. Sunlight tomatoes are one such organism, which only started appearing around two hundred years ago.

Painted Fields

Eccentric heathlands

The Painted Fields are vibrant heathlands in central Veresta. Its cool climate has made it the perfect place for outer space residents to find their home here.

Some of the biggest cities on Capepo are found in the Painted Fields, including Ammi and Nidularia, two cities with populations in the tens of millions.

Introducted Range

Other variants of these tomatoes have been introduced throughout Barbas and eastern Veresta. They are one of the most popular fruits grown by amateur and professional gardeners alike, as they are easy to maintain provided one has access to a solarium.

Solariums on Capepo are specialised attachments to houses - occasionally entire buildings themselves - which magnify both sunlight and magical energy. This helps gardeners cultivate all manner of plants grown around the globe.

Wild sunlight tomatoes are especially common in the Painted Fields, sprawling heathlands in central Veresta. They grow in large clusters, and are a dominant plant. They outcompete other plants for resources, and they have spread far and wide.

Capepo

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Scientific Name

Solanum solaris

Lifespan

5 years

Average Height

4 - 5 feet

Geographic Distribution

• Barbas
• Capepo
• Painted Fields

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