In addition, S. pimpinellifolium produced many more flowers in a highly regular manner when compared with the cultivated types. Thus, tomato inflorescences should be classified as a cyme with the note that the inflorescence meristem does not terminate into a flower and, in fact, maintains indeterminacy. Floral buds were formed concomitantly with the development of the inflorescence meristem and not on the flanks of the peduncle, a characteristic of racemose growth.
Nevertheless, our results demonstrated that tomato inflorescences are indeterminate in nature regardless of the line studied. Interestingly, higher fruit carpel number was associated with delayed floral development, which might give the impression of determinate growth in some of the lines. Careful observation of developing inflorescences of both species showed a bifurcation of the meristem into a determinate floral and an indeterminate inflorescence meristem. In this study, we addressed the discrepancy in inflorescence architecture by analyzing the morphology of a wild relative of tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium L. and four domesticated Solanum lycopersicum L. lines. Cymose inflorescences are determinate, whereas racemose inflorescences are indeterminate. The inflorescence of tomato has been characterized as either a cyme or raceme.