Question

Botanical name of tomato is:
A. Allium cepa
B. Solanum tuberosum
C. Saccharum officinarum
D. Lycopersicon esculentum

Answer 1

Hint: Tomato plant from which we obtain the red berry, commonly known as the tomato belongs to Family Solanaceae. The botanical name consists of two epithets. The botanical names are according to the Binomial System of Nomenclature.

Complete answer:
To solve this question, we must first know the rules for the botanical nomenclature and the scientific names of the commonly asked plants.
 The most commonly used nomenclature in botany is the Binomial System of Nomenclature which was given by a Swedish botanist, Carolus Linneaus. In this system, each plant is named using two Latinised words.
1. The first word is the generic epithet while the second word is the specific epithet. The former represents the genus of the plant while the latter represents the species.
2. The generic epithet must always begin with the capital letter while the specific epithet must always begin with a small letter.
3. Both the generic and the specific epithet must be underlined separately. If these botanical names are being printed, then they must be italicized.
4. The name of the author can also be written after the specific epithet in abbreviated form or full form.
5. There should be no commas, hyphens etc. between the generic and the specific epithet or between the specific epithet and the name of the author.

The botanical name of tomato is Lycopersicon esculentum. Here, Lycopersicon is the genus to which the tomato belongs to while esculentum is the species.

Note: Here are the botanical names of a few plants

Plants	Botanical names
Onion	Allium cepa
Potato	Solanum tuberosum
Sugarcane	Saccharum officinarum