The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word tomatl gave rise to the Spanish word tomate, from which the English word tomato derived.

Tomatoes have bisexual flowers, containing both male and female components. Flowers become the fruits, or the tomatoes themselves —a berry, consisting of the ovary, together with its seeds

As a true fruit, it develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization, its flesh comprising the pericarp walls. The fruit contains hollow spaces full of seeds and moisture, called locular cavities.