129 Fun Facts About Fruit and Vegetables

In Nix v. Hedden (1893), the US Supreme Court ruled that for tariff purposes tomatoes are what?

Vegetables, unanimously: the justices agreed tomatoes are botanically fruits but said the tariff law used everyday meaning, and tomatoes are served with dinner rather than dessert.

The likely wild ancestor of the tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium, is native to which region?

Western South America: Solanum pimpinellifolium, the currant tomato, grows wild along the coasts of Peru and Ecuador, and Spanish ships carried the domesticated tomato to Europe in the 16th century.

Widespread infections of what forced the Gros Michel banana to be replaced by the Cavendish?

Panama disease, a soil-borne Fusarium fungus, wiped out Gros Michel plantations by the 1950s; its Tropical Race 4 strain later began attacking the replacement Cavendish in the same way.

Cavendish bananas take their name from William Cavendish, who held which English title?

Duke of Devonshire: William Cavendish, the 6th Duke, had his head gardener Joseph Paxton grow the plants at Chatsworth House, where Paxton described them in 1837 as Musa cavendishii.

Bananas are very slightly radioactive because of which naturally occurring isotope?

Potassium-40 is a natural radioactive isotope within the potassium bananas are rich in; the informal 'banana equivalent dose' of about 0.1 microsievert uses one banana as a yardstick.

The earliest domestication of bananas, from seedless Musa banksii plants, took place on which island?

New Guinea: excavations at Kuk Swamp in the highlands show bananas were being cultivated there by about 7,000 years ago, the earliest evidence of banana domestication anywhere.

Botanically, a strawberry is not a true berry. What is it classified as?

The red flesh grows from the flower's receptacle, and the 'seeds' on the outside are actually the individual fruits, called achenes.

The modern garden strawberry was first bred in the 1750s in which region of France?

Brittany: the garden strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa, arose there in the 1750s from a cross of the North American Fragaria virginiana with the large-fruited Chilean Fragaria chiloensis.

Pre-Columbian farmers first domesticated the potato in the highlands around which body of water?

Lake Titicaca: the potato was domesticated in the highlands of southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia around that lake some 7,000 to 10,000 years ago, from wild Solanum species.

Which plant family contains the genus Solanum, home to both potatoes and tomatoes?

The nightshades, Solanaceae, also include peppers, tobacco and deadly nightshade, and green potato skins contain the same class of toxic alkaloids.

What kind of organism is Phytophthora infestans, the late blight behind the Great Irish Famine?

A fungus-like oomycete: oomycetes resemble moulds but are closer kin to brown algae than to true fungi, so many fungicides aimed at true fungi work poorly against late blight.

When carrots were first cultivated, which parts of the plant were they grown for?

The leaves and seeds: carrots were first grown in Persia for their aromatic foliage and seeds, used like herbs and spices; later selection for the swollen root produced the vegetable eaten today.

Growers from which country created the stable orange 'Long Orange' carrot in the early 18th century?

In the 10th century most cultivated carrots were purple, and the orange colour comes from beta-carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A.

What was the real reason for the WWII RAF night-fighter successes credited to carrots?

Newly adopted radar: airborne interception radar let RAF night fighters find German bombers in the dark, and the carrot story gave that secret a cover; the night-vision myth has outlived the war.

Malus sieversii, the domestic apple's wild ancestor, still grows in which part of the world?

Central Asia: Malus sieversii grows wild in the Tian Shan mountains of Kazakhstan, whose largest city Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, has a name translating as 'father of the apples'.

Roughly how many known cultivars of apple exist?

Despite that variety, China alone grows about half of the world's apples, and the fruit belongs to the rose family.

The modern watermelon was first cultivated in which country?

Sudan: genome studies published in 2021 showed the Kordofan melon of Sudan is the closest wild relative of the domesticated watermelon, which Egyptians were already growing by about 2000 BC.

Which US state named the watermelon its official state vegetable in 2007?

Oklahoma: in 2007 its legislature named the watermelon the state vegetable, honouring the Rush Springs Watermelon Festival and arguing that watermelons are kin to cucumbers and gourds.

Which state's official state fruit, chosen in 2009, is the tomato?

Ohio: the state named the tomato its official fruit in 2009, the same year it made the pawpaw its official native fruit, leaving it with two official fruits.

Which state's official state vegetable, chosen in 1997, is the sweet onion?

Texas named the sweet onion its state vegetable in 1997, honouring the 1015 onion bred at Texas A&M; Idaho picked the potato in 2002 and Louisiana the sweet potato in 2003.

Before 1959, what was the kiwifruit generally called in English?

Chinese gooseberry: in 1959 the New Zealand exporter Turners & Growers renamed it kiwifruit after the national bird, because 'Chinese' carried Cold War baggage in the US and gooseberries drew import duties.

Kiwifruit is native to which country, which grew over half of the world's supply in 2023?

The first written description dates from the 12th-century Song dynasty, and 100 grams of the fruit supplies more than a full day's vitamin C.

'Avocado' comes from the Spanish 'aguacate', which in turn derives from which language?

Nahuatl: the Aztec language's word ahuacatl became Spanish aguacate and then English avocado; the fruit itself is botanically a single-seeded berry.

Rudolph Hass, who raised the Hass avocado 'mother tree', worked as what?

A mail carrier: Rudolph Hass, a Californian postman, planted the mother tree in La Habra Heights and patented the Hass avocado in 1935; every Hass avocado descends from that one tree.

Because its smell can linger for days, the durian is banned by some hotels and public transport in which region?

Southeast Asia: Singapore's MRT trains and many hotels in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur ban the fruit, whose smell detractors have compared to sewage and gym socks.

What does 'duri', the Malay root of the word 'durian', mean?

Thorn: 'duri' is Malay for thorn, fitting a rind covered in sharp spikes; the fruit is native to Borneo, Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula.

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi are all cultivars of which species?

Brassica oleracea: wild cabbage grows on the coasts of western Europe, and centuries of selection for leaves, buds or stems turned one species into these very different vegetables.

The Yubari King, one of the world's most expensive fruits, is a cantaloupe grown on which Japanese island?

Hokkaido: the Yubari King is grown around the town of Yubari on Japan's northern island, and in May 2019 the drinks company Pokka Sapporo paid 5 million yen for a pair at auction.

Record-breaking giant pumpkins such as the Atlantic Giant belong to which Cucurbita species?

Cucurbita maxima: the Dill's Atlantic Giant cultivar behind modern world-record pumpkins is a C. maxima squash, a species that also includes Hubbard and buttercup squashes.

Rhubarb leaves are poisonous mainly because they contain high levels of which substance?

Oxalic acid: rhubarb leaves hold enough of it to damage the kidneys, so only the stalks, technically petioles, are eaten and the leaves are cut off before the plant reaches the kitchen.

By what light is the first crop harvested in Yorkshire's 'Rhubarb Triangle'?

Candlelight: forced rhubarb grows in pitch-dark sheds so it stays tender, pale and sweet, and pickers work by candle because stronger light would make the stalks toughen and turn green.

Despite its name, what is the peanut botanically?

A legume: the peanut belongs to the bean family, and after its flower is fertilised a stalk called a peg pushes the ovary into the soil, so the pods develop underground.

The word 'eggplant', first recorded in 1763, was originally applied to cultivars of which colour?

White: the name was coined for small white, egg-shaped cultivars that resemble hen's eggs; the plant is called aubergine in British English and brinjal in South Asia.

Roughly what percentage of a cucumber is water?

95%: cucumbers are roughly 95 percent water by weight, which is why they are so low in calories; the plant was domesticated in India from a wild variety.

Which protein-digesting enzyme in pineapple ruins gelatin desserts?

Bromelain: this enzyme in fresh pineapple breaks down the proteins that set gelatin, so a dessert made with raw pineapple never firms; each pineapple is really many berries fused into one.

Traces of onions, an Egyptian symbol of eternal life, were found in the eye sockets of which pharaoh?

Ramesses IV: onion remains were found in the eye sockets of his mummy, the concentric rings being read as a symbol of eternity; the tears onions cause come from syn-propanethial-S-oxide.

The cashew shell's anacardic acid is chemically related to urushiol, the oil found in which plant?

Poison ivy is a relative of the cashew, which is why cashews are always sold shelled; the kidney-shaped drupe grows at the end of a swollen stalk called the cashew apple.

Which US state overtook Massachusetts in the 1990s as America's top cranberry producer?

Wisconsin passed Massachusetts in 1995 to become the leading US cranberry state, growing about three-fifths of the crop through the 2010s and 2020s; growers flood the beds because ripe berries float.

Maize was domesticated about 9,000 years ago in southern Mexico from which wild grass?

Teosinte: maize was bred from the wild grass Zea mays subsp. parviglumis in the Balsas River valley of southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago; each kernel is a caryopsis, a fruit fused to its seed coat.

Which fruit is the national fruit of India, Pakistan and the Philippines?

India grows about 43 percent of the world's supply, and the tree is the national tree of Bangladesh.

How many grams is the WHO's minimum daily fruit-and-vegetable recommendation behind 'five a day'?

400 g: the WHO recommends at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables a day, which the UK's 'five a day' splits into five 80-gram portions, excluding potatoes and other starchy tubers.

The sweet orange is a hybrid of the mandarin and which other citrus fruit?

Pomelo: the sweet orange arose as a hybrid of the mandarin and the pomelo, with mostly mandarin ancestry; the colour orange was named after the fruit, not the other way round.

The grapefruit arose in the 18th century as an accidental hybrid on which Caribbean island?

Barbados: the grapefruit appeared there in the 18th century as a chance cross of the pomelo and sweet orange; its furanocoumarins block a liver enzyme that metabolises many drugs, hence the juice warnings.

On the Scoville scale, how hot is a bell pepper?

0 SHU: bell peppers carry a recessive gene that stops them making capsaicin, so they score zero; red bell peppers are simply green ones left to ripen, and botanically the pods are berries.

A true lemon is a hybrid of the bitter orange and which other citrus?

Citron: genetic studies show the lemon is a cross between the citron and the bitter orange; in 1747 James Lind gave lemons and oranges to scurvy-stricken sailors, decades before vitamin C was identified.

What is the world's largest tree-borne fruit, up to 55 kg, and the national fruit of Bangladesh?

Jackfruit: the fruit can reach about 55 kg and is Bangladesh's national fruit; its unripe flesh has a meat-like texture that has made it a popular vegan substitute for pulled pork.

The word 'coconut' comes from a 16th-century Portuguese word 'coco' meaning what?

Head or skull: Portuguese sailors called it coco, their word for a grinning head or skull, because the three holes at the base of the shell looked like a face to them.

Which insect enters a fig through the small opening at its tip to pollinate the tiny flowers inside?

A wasp: tiny fig wasps crawl in through the ostiole to lay eggs and pollinate the flowers inside; subfossil figs from about 9400 BC in the Jordan Valley may be the earliest cultivated crop.

In a 1932 strip, Popeye credited his strength to spinach being full of which nutrient, not iron?

Vitamin A: in a 1932 strip Popeye says spinach is 'full of Vitamin A' and that is what makes him strong; the idea that spinach is exceptionally rich in iron is an academic urban legend.

Which plant family does the sweet potato, only a distant relative of the potato, belong to?

Morning glory family: the sweet potato is Ipomoea batatas, a Convolvulaceae like the garden morning glory; it reached Polynesia centuries before Columbus, and North American 'yams' are usually sweet potatoes.

How is white asparagus produced from the same plant as green asparagus?

Grown under heaped soil away from light: white asparagus is blanched by mounding earth over the crowns so the spears never photosynthesise; the smell in urine afterwards comes from asparagusic acid.

Eating grapes or raisins can cause which serious condition in dogs?

Acute kidney failure: even a few grapes or raisins can shut down a dog's kidneys, with tartaric acid identified in 2021 as the likely toxin; most cultivated grapes descend from Vitis vinifera.

Per Pliny the Elder, garlands for Nemean Games winners were made from which vegetable?

Raw celery is about 95 percent water, which is where the myth about it having negative calories comes from.

Which group of compounds gives Brussels sprouts and other brassicas their bitter taste?

Glucosinolates: sulfur-rich compounds such as sinigrin and progoitrin give sprouts their bitterness; Dutch breeders in the 1990s selected low-glucosinolate varieties, which is why modern sprouts taste milder.

Which Australian fruit has the highest recorded vitamin C content, up to 5,300 mg per 100 g?

Kakadu plum: this northern Australian fruit has been measured at up to 5,300 mg of vitamin C per 100 g, dozens of times an orange's; humans need dietary vitamin C because our GULO gene is broken.

What is the glycoprotein in West Africa's 'miracle fruit' that makes sour foods taste sweet?

Miraculin binds to the tongue's sweet receptors so that acids taste sweet until saliva washes it away; West Africans have long used the pulp to sweeten palm wine.

Why does a picked raspberry have a hollow core, unlike a blackberry?

The central torus stays on the plant when a raspberry is picked; each berry is an aggregate of tiny drupelets from a single flower.

Methuselah, grown from a 2,000-year-old seed found in Israel, is what kind of tree?

Date palm: Methuselah sprouted in 2005 from a seed excavated at Masada; six more ancient date seeds have since germinated, and male Methuselah pollinated the female Hannah, which bore dates in 2020.

Ruby Roman, a ping-pong-ball-sized table grape, is grown and sold entirely in which Japanese prefecture?

Ishikawa: Ruby Roman grapes were developed in Ishikawa prefecture and debuted in 2008; a single 26-grape bunch fetched 1.1 million yen at auction in 2016, and in some years none meets the premium grade.

Why are Japan's cube-shaped watermelons, first shown in 1978, usually inedible?

They must be picked before they ripen: the melons grow inside boxes, an idea from graphic designer Tomoyuki Ono, and are harvested early to hold their shape, selling as ornaments for up to about 200 US dollars.

Which country was the world's leading papaya producer in 2024?

The papaya was first domesticated in Mesoamerica; its name comes from the Arawakan languages.

Which goddess of Greek myth was bound to the underworld each year by eating pomegranate seeds?

Persephone had to spend part of every year underground after eating the seeds; the pomegranate's medieval Latin name, pomum granatum, means 'seeded apple'.

Commercial blueberries, both lowbush and highbush, are native to which continent?

North America: both lowbush and highbush blueberries are native there, and the first cultivated highbush varieties were bred in New Jersey in the 1910s by Elizabeth White and Frederick Coville.

Which country produced 28% of the world's sweet cherries in 2020?

Turkey: it harvested about 725,000 tonnes of sweet cherries in 2020, roughly 28 percent of the world crop, ahead of the United States and Chile; sweet cherries come from Prunus avium, sour from Prunus cerasus.

Nectarines are glossy-skinned, non-fuzzy varieties of which fruit species?

Peaches were first domesticated in China; the name persica refers to Persia, from where they reached Europe.

Which fruit, cultivated in China since at least the 11th century, has a rose-like aroma?

Lychee: Litchi chinensis is the only species in its genus, and Chinese cultivation is documented from the 11th century, when the scholar Cai Xiang wrote a treatise on its varieties.

Dragon fruit is the fruit of what kind of plant?

A cactus: dragon fruit, or pitaya, grows on climbing Selenicereus cacti native to the Americas; their flowers open only once, at night, and bats and moths are the main natural pollinators.

Botanically, the olive is classed as what type of fruit?

A drupe: the olive has a fleshy layer around a single hard stone, like a cherry or peach; the word 'oil' itself comes from the Latin oleum, originally meaning olive oil.

Why are freshly picked olives nearly always cured before eating?

They contain bitter oleuropein: raw olives are intensely bitter from this compound, so they are soaked in brine, lye or water for weeks to leach it out before they become palatable.

Lemon juice is roughly what percentage citric acid?

5–6%: lemon juice is about 5 to 6 percent citric acid by weight, giving it a pH near 2.2 and making it a handy kitchen stand-in for the pure acid.

Which hard, golden-yellow pome fruit is the sole member of the genus Cydonia?

Ripe quinces are hard, tart and astringent, so they are usually cooked into jam or quince cheese.

Fuyu and Hachiya are the two best-known cultivars of which East Asian fruit?

Persimmon: the squat, non-astringent Fuyu can be eaten crisp, while the acorn-shaped Hachiya is mouth-puckeringly astringent until fully soft; both are cultivars of Diospyros kaki.

Roughly how many varieties of pear are grown worldwide?

About 3,000: roughly 3,000 pear varieties are grown worldwide, from European Pyrus communis types such as Bartlett to the crisp Asian nashi; fermented pear juice is called perry.

Swiss chard and mangelwurzel are cultivars of the same subspecies as which root vegetable?

Beetroot's leaves are also eaten, as beet greens.

The edible artichoke is a cultivated variety of what type of plant?

Thistle: the globe artichoke is a domesticated thistle, Cynara cardunculus, whose flower bud is eaten before it blooms; the cardoon is another variety of the same species.

The leek is one of the national emblems of which country?

Wales: the leek has been a Welsh emblem since at least the medieval period and is worn on St David's Day; in Welsh the daffodil is Cenhinen Bedr, 'Peter's leek'.

Okra, also called lady's fingers, belongs to which plant family?

Mallow family: okra, Abelmoschus esculentus, is a Malvaceae like cotton, cocoa and hibiscus, and the mucilage in its pods is what thickens gumbo.

Zucchini is known by what name in France and Britain?

Courgette: the French name is used in Britain for the immature fruit, while a zucchini left to grow large becomes a marrow; both names mean 'little gourd', from courge and zucca.

Which US state is home to Morton, the self-styled Pumpkin Capital of the World?

Illinois: Morton hosts the Libby's plant that cans most of America's pumpkin, earning the town its 'Pumpkin Capital of the World' title; Cucurbita pepo was being grown in Mesoamerica by 7000 BCE.

Which root vegetable was used as a sweetener in Europe before cane sugar arrived?

Parsnips become sweeter after winter frosts and were cultivated by the Romans.

Celeriac is a celery cultivar grown for which part of the plant?

Its swollen root-like base: celeriac is bred for a knobbly, bulbous hypocotyl and upper root that is peeled and eaten raw in remoulade or cooked, while stalk celery is a separate cultivar group.

From which language does the word 'spinach' ultimately derive?

Persian: spinach was first cultivated in Persia, and its name travelled from Persian aspanakh through Arabic isfanakh and Spanish espinaca into Old French and then English.

Which ancient civilisation is credited with first farming lettuce?

The Egyptians first cultivated lettuce around 2680 BC, growing it for the oil of its seeds and depicting it in tomb paintings as sacred to the fertility god Min.

Which compound, formed when a clove is crushed, gives fresh garlic its pungent bite?

Allicin forms within seconds when crushing brings the enzyme alliinase into contact with alliin; it is responsible for fresh garlic's bite and quickly breaks down on cooking.

Ginger belongs to the same plant family as which two spices?

Turmeric and cardamom: both belong with ginger to the family Zingiberaceae; ginger originated in Maritime Southeast Asia and was carried across the Pacific by Austronesian peoples.

Which chickpea type, small and dark-coated, dominates production in South Asia?

Desi: the small, dark, rough-coated desi type makes up most of the world's chickpea crop, especially in India, while the larger, paler kabuli type is the one sold canned in the West.

Which Roman family name is said to derive from the Latin for chickpea?

Cicero: Plutarch says the name came from cicer, Latin for chickpea, after an ancestor's cleft nose; Fabius, Lentulus and Piso were likewise traced to the bean, lentil and pea.

The dense white edible head of a cauliflower is known as what?

The Romanesco variety grows spiral curds in fractal patterns.

Brussels sprouts take their name from a city in which country?

Belgium: the sprouts were grown around Brussels from at least the 16th century, with the first written reference in 1587; their group name gemmifera means 'bud-bearing'.

A jalapeño typically rates how hot on the Scoville scale?

4,000–8,500 units: a jalapeño's heat sits in that range, well below a serrano's roughly 10,000 to 25,000, which is why it is the milder choice for salsas and poppers.

The habanero pepper is named after which city?

Havana: habanero is Spanish for 'from Havana', the Cuban port through which the pepper was traded, though it is grown mainly in Mexico's Yucatán; habaneros rate 100,000–350,000 Scoville units.

Which pepper, bred by Ed Currie, held the Guinness record for hottest chili from 2013 to 2023?

Carolina Reaper: Ed Currie's pepper averaged about 1.64 million Scoville units and held the Guinness title from 2013 until October 2023, when his Pepper X, at about 2.69 million, took over.

Capsaicin is concentrated most heavily in which part of a chili pepper?

The placental tissue: the white pith that holds the seeds produces and stores most of a chili's capsaicin, which the seeds merely pick up by contact; peppers likely make it to deter mammals and fungi.

Wasabi is grown for which part of the plant?

Its rhizomes: the thick green rhizome is grated fresh to make the paste, and real wasabi grows along cold stream beds in Japanese mountain valleys; it is a relative of horseradish.

Horseradish, mustard, wasabi and cabbage all belong to which plant family?

Brassicaceae: the mustard family, also called Cruciferae for its four-petalled cross-shaped flowers, includes horseradish, mustard, wasabi and the cabbages; horseradish is likely native to southeastern Europe and western Asia.

The Granny Smith apple originated in 1868 in which country?

Australia: Maria Ann Smith propagated the apple from a chance seedling at her orchard in Eastwood, near Sydney, in 1868.

The Red Delicious apple was first recognised in 1872 in which US state?

Iowa: Jesse Hiatt found the chance seedling on his farm near Peru, Iowa, around 1872 and named it Hawkeye; Stark Brothers bought the rights in the 1890s and renamed it Delicious.

The Honeycrisp apple was developed at a university research center in which US state?

Minnesota: the University of Minnesota bred it as MN1711 in 1974, nearly discarded it, and released it in 1991; Honeycrisp became the state fruit in 2006.

What was the real name of the pioneer nurseryman known as Johnny Appleseed?

John Chapman, born in Massachusetts in 1774, planted nurseries of seed-grown apple trees across Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, largely for cider rather than eating.

Vidalia onions are grown in a legally defined area of which US state?

Georgia: Vidalia onions may only be grown in a 20-county area of south Georgia defined by state law in 1986 and a federal marketing order; their sweetness comes from the low-sulfur local soil.

Which onion relative was demoted from its own species to a cultivar group of Allium cepa?

Shallot: once treated as Allium ascalonicum, it was folded into the onion species as the Allium cepa Aggregatum Group, forming clusters of small bulbs; Allium cepa is known only from cultivation.

In 2008, researchers in which country created 'no tears' onions by genetic modification?

New Zealand: scientists at Crop & Food Research in Christchurch silenced the gene for lachrymatory factor synthase, the enzyme that makes the tear-inducing compound, announcing the onion in 2008.

Bell peppers, jalapeños and cayennes all belong to which Capsicum species?

Capsicum annuum: bell peppers form the Grossum Group of the species that also gives jalapeños and cayennes, while habaneros belong to Capsicum chinense and Tabasco peppers to Capsicum frutescens.

A currant, as sold in baking, is a dried version of which small grape?

Black Corinth: the tiny dark 'Zante currants' of baking are dried Black Corinth grapes, named for Corinth in Greece; sultanas are dried pale grapes and raisins the larger dark dried kind.

The pineapple is the most economically important plant in which family?

Bromeliaceae: the pineapple is by far the most valuable crop in the bromeliad family, native to South America; its arrival in 17th-century Europe made it an icon of luxury, carved onto gateposts.

Which three countries produced 73% of the world's coconuts in 2024?

Indonesia, India and the Philippines: those three tropical giants have long harvested about three-quarters of the world's coconuts; the palm is native to the Central Indo-Pacific and its buoyant nuts spread by floating across oceans.

The mango tree is the national tree of which country?

Bangladesh: the mango tree was declared its national tree in 2010; the English word mango came via Portuguese manga from Malayalam and ultimately Tamil.

Improperly prepared cassava can contain poisonous levels of which substance?

Cyanide: cassava roots contain cyanogenic glycosides such as linamarin that release hydrogen cyanide unless the roots are peeled, soaked, grated or fermented; the starch is processed into tapioca.

Which root vegetable is called swede in British English?

Rutabaga is the North American name; its species Brassica napus also includes rapeseed.

Kohlrabi's name comes from the German words for which two vegetables?

Cabbage and turnip: German Kohl (cabbage) plus Rübe (turnip) describe a wild-cabbage cultivar whose swollen stem looks like a turnip.

Fennel and anise are two of the primary flavouring ingredients of which spirit?

Absinthe: its 'holy trinity' of botanicals is grand wormwood, green anise and sweet fennel, which give the spirit its liquorice note; Florence fennel, or finocchio, is the swollen-stemmed form eaten as a vegetable.

Star fruit is known by what other name?

Carambola is the star fruit's other name, from Portuguese; it contains oxalic acid and the neurotoxin caramboxin, so people with kidney problems should avoid it.

The name rambutan comes from a Malay word meaning what?

Hair: rambut is Malay for hair, after the fruit's soft spines; in Vietnamese it is chôm chôm, meaning 'messy hair'.

In 1789 which ship, carrying breadfruit saplings from Tahiti, was seized by mutineers?

HMS Bounty: William Bligh was transporting breadfruit saplings from Tahiti to feed enslaved workers in the West Indies when Fletcher Christian's mutineers seized the ship in April 1789.

Which term do botanists use for fruits such as watermelons, cucumbers and pumpkins?

Pepo: watermelons, cucumbers and squashes are pepos, berries with a hard rind formed partly from the receptacle; more than 1,000 watermelon varieties exist.

Tangerines, clementines and satsumas are all varieties of which citrus?

Mandarin: tangerines, clementines and satsumas are all mandarin types, Citrus reticulata, the small loose-skinned citrus that is one of the ancestral species behind the sweet orange.

Missionary Clément Rodier first propagated the clementine in which country?

Algeria: Brother Clément Rodier found the clementine around 1902 in the garden of his orphanage at Misserghin, near Oran; it is a hybrid of a willowleaf mandarin and a sweet orange.

A prune is a dried version of which fruit?

Plum: prunes are dried plums, mostly of freestone cultivars such as the French d'Agen, whose pit comes away easily.

Sweet corn is the result of a natural mutation affecting the conversion of sugar into what?

Starch: the sugary (su) mutation slows the kernel's conversion of sugar into starch, so sweet corn is picked immature at the 'milk stage', unlike field corn harvested dry.

Edamame is a dish of immature beans of which plant?

Soybean: edamame are green soybeans boiled or steamed in the pod; the Japanese name means 'stem beans', because they were sold still on the branch.

The green fruit at the heart of Mexican salsa verde is which nightshade relative?

Tomatillos were cultivated in Mexico in the pre-Columbian era; the name comes from Nahuatl tomatl.

Nopales, eaten in Mexican cuisine, are the pads of which type of plant?

Prickly pear cactus: nopales are the flat young pads of Opuntia cacti, about 114 species of which are known in Mexico; the name comes from Nahuatl nohpalli.

The Jerusalem artichoke, or sunchoke, is actually a species of which plant?

Sunflower: the Jerusalem artichoke is Helianthus tuberosus, a sunflower native to central North America grown for its knobbly tuber; 'Jerusalem' is thought to be a corruption of the Italian girasole.

The passion fruit vine, Passiflora edulis, is native to which part of the world?

Southern Brazil to northern Argentina: Passiflora edulis grows wild from southern Brazil through Paraguay into northern Argentina, and was carried from there to plantations worldwide.

The common guava is a small tree in which plant family?

Myrtle family: the common guava, Psidium guajava, is a Myrtaceae like cloves, allspice and eucalyptus, native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean; botanically its fruits are berries.

Missionaries in Brazil around 1700 named the passion fruit as a teaching aid for which story?

The crucifixion of Christ: they called it the 'flower of the five wounds', flor das cinco chagas, with other parts of the plant named for emblems of the Passion of Jesus.

Blackcurrants were banned across the US for much of the 20th century as a carrier of which disease?

White pine blister rust: the fungus Cronartium ribicola needs a Ribes plant such as blackcurrant as an alternate host, so a federal ban protected timber pines until 1966, with some state bans lasting decades longer.

In moist, warm soil, radish seed germinates in roughly how many days?

Three to four: in moist soil at 18–30°C radish seed is up in three to four days, a speed that makes it a favourite for children's gardens; Greek and Roman writers described varieties by the first century AD.

The pawpaw, the largest edible fruit native to the United States, belongs to which plant family?

Custard apple family: the pawpaw, Asimina triloba, is a rare temperate member of the mostly tropical Annonaceae, kin to cherimoya and soursop, which is why its flesh tastes like banana custard.