United States / Grow / tree tomato

tree tomato (Cyphomandra betacea)
Photo: (c) Abril Bastons, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

tree tomato

Cyphomandra betacea (accepted: Solanum betaceum) · Solanaceae · also called Tamarillo · Wikipedia

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Form
shrub
Region
Australia; Tasmania, Australia
Rated in
Global; Tasmania, Australia
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
1 source placement record; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Global; Tasmania, Australia

2. Why this plant is relevant here

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Mid-scale / conditional (1)

Listed without a rating (3)
Corroboration (3 rows from 1 source)
  • FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

    3 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.

    • Primary study Pacheco2022: Pacheco, A. S., Goodman, H. D., Hankenson, L., Fisk, J. J., Ortiz, A., Marinace, H. M., ... Tng, D. Y. P. (2022). Fighting fire with food: Assessing the flammability of crop plant species for building fire resilient agroforestry systems. in review, preprint.

      Shared row context: plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Pacheco2022-1; sampling october to november 2022.

      • “maximum flame temperature (°C): 319.24”

        FLAMITS record 16375; Combustibility measurement.

      • “burning duration (s): 0.2”

        FLAMITS record 16376; Sustainability measurement.

      • “estimated burnt biomass (%): 4.6”

        FLAMITS record 16377; Consumability measurement.

Fire-resistant shrubs instead

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Cyphomandra betacea (Tamarillo). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/cyphomandra-betacea/. Last verified 2026-08-23.