Cultivar · Tomato cultivar
Cherokee Purple
Cherokee Purple is an heirloom beefsteak tomato with dusky pink-purple fruit, popularized in the United States in the early 1990s and now a widely grown "black" heirloom.
Record
Cultivar / variety- Variety of
- Tomato
- Botanical taxon
- Solanum lycopersicum
- Type
- Heirloom
- Breeding method
- Open-pollinated
- Origin
- Tennessee (as commercially popularized), United States
- Registry status
- Historical
- Adaptation
- A warm-season indeterminate heirloom grown mainly in gardens; like other beefsteak types it favours a warm season for good fruit development.
- Intended use
- Fresh (slicing / beefsteak)
Registry listing or variety protection is jurisdiction- and date-specific and does not by itself indicate current commercial availability, universal cultivation approval, patent status, or a recommendation.
Cherokee Purple is an heirloom beefsteak tomato known for large, flattened fruit in a dusky pink-purple colour with darker shoulders. It grows on indeterminate plants and is grown for fresh use, valued as one of the best-known "black" or "purple" heirloom tomatoes.
The variety was named and distributed commercially in the United States in the early 1990s, having been received from a Tennessee gardener. An older origin story linking it to the Cherokee people is often repeated but is anecdotal and not independently documented.
Identity and type
Cherokee Purple is characterized by large beefsteak fruit whose skin and flesh take on a muddy rose-to-purple hue, often with green shoulders. The plants are indeterminate and fruit over an extended period, and the tomato is grown chiefly for fresh eating.
- Parent crop
- Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)
- Growth habit
- Indeterminate
- Fruit type
- Large beefsteak, dusky pink-purple
- Intended use
- Fresh slicing and table use
Name and history
The tomato entered wider circulation after a gardener in the United States received seed from a Tennessee source, named it Cherokee Purple, and shared it through the heirloom-seed community in the early 1990s. Its rise in popularity dates from that period.
Relationships
Evidence-backed connections in the knowledge graph.
Adapted to soil
Scope & limitations
Geographic scope: Popularized in the United States and now grown internationally by heirloom-tomato enthusiasts; its earlier history is not independently verified.
Climate context: Warm-season indeterminate heirloom grown mainly in gardens across temperate and warm regions.
- The pre-commercial history of Cherokee Purple is anecdotal and not independently documented, so no verified breeder or exact origin date is asserted here.
- Fruit colour terms such as "purple" and "black" are descriptive and can vary with ripeness, light, and growing conditions.
- As an indeterminate heirloom, its plant behaviour and fruit quality depend heavily on the local climate and season.
Sources
This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.
- [1]GRIN-Global / National Plant Germplasm System (opens in a new tab)Authoritative
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Cited for: Tomato germplasm and heirloom cultivar nomenclature
- Type:
- Official registry
- Jurisdiction:
- United States / Global
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12
- [2]GBIF — Global Biodiversity Information Facility (opens in a new tab)High
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
Cited for: Taxonomic backbone for Solanum lycopersicum
- Type:
- Reference database
- Jurisdiction:
- Global
- Accessed:
- 2026-07-12