Solanum lycopersicum
Origin: Bam, Iran
Improvement status: Landrace
Seeds per packet: ~25
Germination tested 12/2025: 70% (Below standard)
Life cycle: Annual
'Bam' tomato was collected in 1940 in the small city of Bam, Iran, in the southern province of Kerman. It has been maintained by the USDA ever since. Collected by USDA "plant explorer" Walter Norman Koelz (you can read all about him in our 'Isfahan' tomato listing), it was originally reported to be "a mix of red and yellow sorts", but so far it seems to be only red at this point (after 85 years in the USDA collection, some drift is to be expected — it's entirely possible someone selected out the yellow fruiting genetics at some point, but it's also possible that those genes are still in the population and will show up again). It's a landrace, so you can expect some variation. Fruit are mild-flavored, pale red, usually ribbed, somewhat squat, and with good texture. We're told it makes a great salsa!
Bam is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its ancient citadel. The city has long history of being a center for the textile industry, known for beautiful cotton clothing and fabric. Ibn Hawqual (943-977 AD), an Arab traveller, writer, and geographer, mentioned Bam in his Surat-ul-'Ard (The Earth-Figure): "Over there they weave excellent, beautiful and long-lasting cotton cloths which are sent to places all over the world. There they also make excellent clothes, each of which costs around 30 dinars; these are sold in Khorasan, Iraq, and Egypt." Bam also has a well-known agricultural heritage, with fields and orchards irrigated by an impressive system of qanats (undergound aqueducts), which originated elsewhere in the region some 3,000 years ago. Bam is especially known for its citrus fruits and dates, in particular the Mozafati variety. Summers in Bam get incredibly hot, with average high temperatures in June, July and August well over 100° F (and even May and September over 97°!), so any plants from there have got to be super resilient.
These seeds were grown in Newtown Square, PA, by our friends Amanda Chin — who has Assyrian ancestry from Iran — and Kyla Lang — a longtime colleague and friend through the Cooperative Gardens Commission project. We will donate 25% of the proceeds of these seeds to the Iraqi Seed Collective, which works to preserve seeds from countries neighboring Iraq as well (since the borders across the region are all the arbitrary results of imperialism anyway).
