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This mushroom trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the whole fungal kingdom: what a mushroom actually is, why fungi are closer to animals than plants, the humongous fungus in Oregon, the death cap and destroying angel, the fly agaric behind Super Mario, and the edible favourites from button and shiitake to morels, chanterelles, matsutake and truffles hunted by pigs and dogs. It also visits fairy rings, foxfire, zombie ants and The Last of Us, psilocybin's path from a Life magazine article to Oregon's ballot, and the moulds and yeasts that gave us penicillin and beer. The first questions are easy enough for anyone who cooks; the last ones will stretch amateur mycologists. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A mushroom is technically which part of a fungus?
Its spore-bearing fruiting body
The bulk of the organism is the underground mycelium; the mushroom is just the part that pops up to spread spores.
Q 02Fungal cell walls contain which substance, also found in insect shells?
Chitin
Like animals, fungi are heterotrophs that digest food outside their bodies and absorb it.
Q 03Genetically, fungi are more closely related to which group than to plants?
Animals
Mycology used to be treated as a branch of botany.
Q 04Roughly how many fungal species have been formally described, out of an estimated 2.2 to 3.8 million?
148,000
At least 300 of the known species can cause disease in humans.
Q 05The word 'toadstool', usually meaning a poisonous mushroom, first appeared in England in which century?
14th
'Mushroom' itself may come from the French mousseron, a reference to moss.
Q 06The 'humongous fungus' of Oregon's Malheur National Forest belongs to which genus?
Armillaria
It covers about 3.5 square miles, may weigh 35,000 tons and is thought to be around 8,000 years old.
Q 07The Malheur National Forest 'humongous fungus' is estimated to be about how old?
8,000 years
Its honey mushrooms surface each autumn while the rest of the organism spreads underground as black 'shoestring' rhizomorphs.
Q 08Which mushroom is responsible for about 90% of fatal mushroom poisonings worldwide?
Death cap
Half a mushroom can kill an adult, and its amatoxins survive cooking and freezing.
Q 09Which Roman emperor may have been murdered with a dish of death caps in AD 54?
Claudius
Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, in 1740, is another suspected victim.
Q 10The death cap's principal toxin, alpha-amanitin, attacks which organs?
Liver and kidneys
Symptoms are often delayed, which is part of what makes the mushroom so dangerous.
Q 11The 'destroying angel' mushrooms are notable for being what colour?
Pure white
They share the death cap's amatoxins and are among the most toxic mushrooms known.
Q 12The red-capped, white-spotted mushroom of fairy tales and Super Mario is which species?
Amanita muscaria
It has been controversially linked to Santa Claus, Viking berserkers and Vedic soma, though the evidence is thin.
Q 13The fly agaric may have earned its name from its historical use to do what?
Kill flies
A medieval belief held that flies could enter the head and cause madness.
Q 21Enoki mushrooms take their Japanese name from which tree, at whose base they grow?
Hackberry
In Mandarin they are 'gold needle mushrooms'.
Q 22Oyster mushrooms belong to which genus, the world's second most important in cultivation?
Pleurotus
They account for about 25% of world production and some species are used to clean up pollutants.
Q 23Morel mushrooms are recognisable by which distinctive cap texture?
Honeycomb pits and ridges
They can be toxic if eaten raw, and are hard to farm, so wild harvesting is a multimillion-dollar business.
Q 14Indigenous peoples of which region used the fly agaric as an intoxicant?
Siberia
Drying converts its ibotenic acid into the more potent muscimol; fatal poisonings are extremely rare.
Q 15Why did Shigeru Miyamoto add a size-changing mushroom to his 1985 platform game?
Beta tests showed the hero was too tall
The Super Mushroom that grows Mario is modelled on the fly agaric's red-and-white cap.
Q 16Button, cremini and portobello mushrooms are all what?
One species at different ages and colours
Agaricus bisporus is cultivated in more than 70 countries; the portobello is simply the mature brown form.
Q 17The white button mushroom was discovered in 1925 on a farm in which US state?
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania remains the top mushroom-producing state, and Kennett Square calls itself the mushroom capital.
Q 18Which borough in the top US mushroom-producing state is the historic leader in mushroom production?
Kennett Square
The state celebrates September as Mushroom Month.
Q 19Which country produces about half of all the world's cultivated mushrooms?
China
Poland, meanwhile, was the world's largest mushroom exporter in 2014.
Q 20The earliest written record of cultivating the shii-tree mushroom dates to 1209 in which country?
China
The Japanese name combines shii, the tree it grows on, and take, mushroom.
Q 24Boyne City in which state hosts a century-old National Morel Mushroom Festival every spring?
Michigan
One observer called it a modern North American Canterbury Tales.
Q 25The chanterelle mushroom's name comes from a Greek word meaning what?
Tankard or cup
Chanterelle derives from kantharos; the German Pfifferling refers instead to its peppery taste.
Q 26Italy's white truffle, Tuber magnatum, is most associated with the countryside around which town?
Alba
Truffles are nicknamed 'diamonds of the earth' and can sell for thousands of dollars a pound.
Q 27Italy banned the use of pigs for hunting the underground delicacy in 1985 for what reason?
Their digging damaged the fungal mycelium
Dogs are now preferred because they do not particularly want to eat the truffle.
Q 28Studies in 1990 found that truffle-hunting pigs and dogs are actually detecting which compound?
Dimethyl sulfide
The old theory was that sows were drawn to a chemical resembling a boar sex pheromone.
Q 29Matsutake, prized in Japanese cuisine, takes its name from which tree?
Pine
Domestic Japanese matsutake can fetch $1,000 a kilogram at the start of the season.
Q 30Huitlacoche, a Mexican delicacy, is actually what?
A fungus that infects corn
The smut swells corn kernels into blue-black galls that are eaten in quesadillas and soups.