New Mexico Native Tomatillo

Physalis philadelphica, subspecies philadelphica

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a.k.a. Zuni tomatillo, Pueblo tomastillo

The New Mexico Native tomatillo is a wild variety found primarily in northern New Mexico that was once gathered as a volunteer in fields or was semi-cultivated by the Navajo, Zuni, Western Keres, Southern Tiwa, and Tewa tribal people. It is a member of the nightshade family, Solanaceae, like the tomato, eggplant, potato, and the cape gooseberry, which has a similar papery husk enclosing the fruit. It is still considered a wild variety and seeds itself easily among other plants in the garden, thriving even in adverse conditions. It has small yellow flowers loved by bees, but it needs to cross-pollinate to bear fruit. The plants are bushy and sprawling with heart shaped leaves, which are poisonous. It is very prolific, producing hundreds of small yellow fruits up to one inch in diameter.

Although the fruit is smaller and has more seeds than other tomatillo varieties, the New Mexico Native tomatillo has a distinctive juicy texture and sweet, complex, fruity, acidic and slightly citrusy flavor. This especially delicious, regionally distinct variety is underappreciated and also endangered by drought, and the demise of gathering traditions. It has been a traditional staple of regional New Mexican and Native cooking, used for soups, chili and salsas.

Photo courtesy of Agrestal Organic Heritage Seeds

This tomatillo belongs to a different subspecies than the domesticated “Mexican tomatillo” widely found in trade. About ten years ago, the production of domesticated tomatillos began to be industrialized in Mexico, and due to the popularity of Mexican food in the United States, it is now an important commercial crop in California. Its ready availability may have discouraged former foragers from gathering this wild or semi-cultivated variety. Tomatillos crossbreed easily and genetic purity is therefore an issue where other varieties or subspecies are grown. Because commercial production focuses on the larger domesticated subspecies, which have become increasingly common in New Mexico farms and gardens, this small but special heritage fruit may be lost.

At least a few Zuni still encourage it in their fields, but it has already been lost from several other Southwestern cultures and is now largely restricted to one New Mexico county. Its seeds are available from only four small catalogs, one of them non-profit. Because of its historic decline in use among Puebloan and Navajo peoples, and its limited availability otherwise, its survival has been endangered by the 11 year drought affecting most of the Colorado Plateau. 

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