While the more common plants probably came from other island yards, Evans thinks the tiny tomatoes might have come all the way from the Caribbean.

“Other people out here on the East End have had that same little tomato,” he said. “No one recognized it, and then I heard by word of mouth that they had come from Cuba. I’m willing to believe that, but I don’t know that it’s true.”

Experts cannot verify Evans’ claim, but the unknown origin of the volunteer plants hasn’t kept gardeners from enjoying them.

Sounds plausible to me, knowing that our seasonal seaweed (Sargasso) that washes ashore every year comes from hundreds of miles off the east coast in the Atlantic ocean.

You might like this, (I thought it was really cool anyway) you click on the picture to see the before and after, Hurricane Ike, one year later...
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/09/one_year_after_hurricane_ike.html

Thanks Sahara, I hadn't seen those.

You're welcome, aren't they neat?

Wow, there's so much damage. The Globe pictures are
pretty nifty, in that you can click on the picture and it will
display the before the storm picture. Great link, Sahara.

It's incredible that foreign (volunteer plant seeds) survived
the huge surges during the storm, so theoretically, there's trillions of seeds floating in the ocean waters.