like ") and have become a symbol for nitpicking pronunciation disputes. In this capacity, it has even become an American and British slang term: saying "" when presented with two choices can mean "What's the difference?" or "It's all the same to me". Botany Description Tomato plants are vines, initially decumbent, typically growing or more above the ground if supported, although erect bush varieties have been bred, generally tall or shorter. Indeterminate types are "tender" perennials, dying annually in temperate climates (they are originally native to tropical highlands), although they can live up to three years in a greenhouse in some cases. Determinate types are annual in all climates. Tomato plants are dicots, and grow as a series of branching stems, with a terminal bud at the tip that does the actual growing. When the tip eventually stops growing, whether because of pruning or flowering, lateral buds take over and grow into other, fully functional, vines. Tomato vines are typically pubescent, meaning covered with fine short hairs. The hairs facilitate the vining process, turning into roots wherever the plant is in contact with the ground and moisture, especially if the vine's connection to its original root has been damaged or severed. Most tomato plants have compound leaves, and are called regular leaf (RL) plants, but some cultivars have simple leaves known as potato leaf (PL) style because of their resemblance to that particular relative. Of RL plants, there are variations, such as rugose leaves, which are deeply grooved, and variegated, angora leaves, which have additional colors where a genetic mutation causes chlorophyll to be excluded from some portions of the leaves. The leaves are long, odd pinnate, with five to nine leaflets on petioles, each leaflet up to long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. Their flowers, appearing on the apical meristem, have the anthers fused along the edges, forming a column surrounding the pistil's style. Flowers in domestic cultivars can be self-fertilizing. The flowers are across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of three to 12 together. Although in culinary terms, tomato is regarded as a vegetable, its fruit is classified botanically as a berry. 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,