Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
9 questions No timer
52 free Pumpkins trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
60 free pumpkins trivia questions with answers. From ancient Mesoamerican crops to the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte, pumpkins have carved out a surprisingly deep place in human history. Test your knowledge of pumpkin botany, folklore, farming, festivals, and food with 52 questions that go well beyond the patch.
30 of 52 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What type of food is a pumpkin technically classified as?
Fruit
Botanically it develops from the flower and carries its seeds inside, so it counts as a fruit rather than a vegetable.
Q 02Which continent are pumpkins originally native to?
North America
Wild Cucurbita grows in what is now northeastern Mexico and the southern United States.
Q 03Irish legend credits the carved Halloween lantern to which trickster who cheated the Devil?
Stingy Jack
Stingy Jack, in Irish legend, tricked the Devil and was barred from both Heaven and Hell, doomed to roam the Earth with only a glowing ember to light his way; lanterns carved in his memory became jack-o'-lanterns.
Q 04Which holiday is most closely associated with pumpkin pie in the United States?
Thanksgiving
It is a Thanksgiving staple in Canada as well.
Q 05What are roasted pumpkin seeds also commonly called?
Pepitas
Pepitas, from the Spanish for 'little seed', are pumpkin seeds, strictly the hull-less green kernels, eaten roasted as a snack and used widely in Mexican cooking.
Q 06In the animated TV special, who waits in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin?
Linus van Pelt
Linus van Pelt spends Halloween night in the pumpkin patch in the 1966 special; Sally stays with him out of a crush and berates him when the only thing to rise from the patch is Snoopy.
Q 07What color is a typical ripe pumpkin?
Orange
Orange: the ripe rind's colour comes from carotenoid pigments that build up as chlorophyll breaks down; white, green and blue-grey varieties also exist, and the word 'pumpkin' has no strict botanical definition.
Q 08Which plant family do pumpkins belong to?
Cucurbitaceae (gourd)
Pumpkins belong to the Cucurbitaceae family, also known as the gourd or cucurbit family. This family also includes cucumbers, melons, and squash.
Q 09The word 'pumpkin' comes from the Greek 'pepon', meaning what?
Large melon
Large melon: the Greek 'pepon' passed through French 'pompon' and English 'pumpion' before American colonists settled on 'pumpkin' in the 17th century.
Q 10Which cultivar is behind most record-breaking heavyweight pumpkins?
Atlantic Giant
Atlantic Giant, a Cucurbita maxima cultivar developed in the 1970s from Mammoth-type stock, is behind virtually every record-breaking heavyweight pumpkin; its fruits can exceed a tonne.
Q 11Pumpkins are made up of approximately what percentage of water?
90%
Pumpkins are approximately 90% water, which is why they are relatively low in calories. A cup of cooked pumpkin contains only about 49 calories.
Q 12Which U.S. state produces the most pumpkins?
Illinois
Illinois leads every other state, growing roughly 95 percent of the US crop destined for processing; its Tazewell County fields around Morton feed the nation's canned pumpkin.
Q 13Which company produces the majority of canned pumpkin sold in the United States?
Libby's
A rain-ruined 2009 crop caused a nationwide canned-pumpkin shortage that Thanksgiving.
Q 21Which New Hampshire city hosts a famous pumpkin festival with thousands of lit Jack-o'-lanterns?
Keene
Keene, New Hampshire, hosted the famous Keene Pumpkin Festival, which set multiple Guinness World Records for the most lit Jack-o'-lanterns in one place, with over 30,000 pumpkins displayed at its peak.
Q 22Charles Schulz first introduced the Great Pumpkin in the Peanuts strip in which year?
1959
1959: Linus first awaited the Great Pumpkin in the strip of 26 October 1959, a gag born of muddling Halloween with Christmas; the TV special followed seven years later in 1966.
Q 23The Guinness world-record pumpkin shot of 5,545 feet was fired in 2010 in which state?
Utah
Q 14What nutrient gives pumpkins their orange color?
Beta-carotene
Beta-carotene, an orange carotenoid pigment, colours the flesh; eat enough of it and your skin can take on a harmless orange tint called carotenodermia.
Q 15What is the traditional 'pumpkin spice' blend typically made from?
Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice
Traditional pumpkin spice (or pumpkin pie spice) is a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves. Despite its name, it contains no actual pumpkin -- it's the spice blend used to season pumpkin dishes.
Q 16Which strain is called 'the original commercial jack-o'-lantern pumpkin'?
Howden
Howden, selected by Massachusetts farmer John Howden in the 1970s from Connecticut Field stock, became the standard commercial jack-o'-lantern, prized for its sturdy handle-like stem and deep ribs.
Q 17Which native bee historically pollinated pumpkins in America?
The squash bee
The squash bee, Peponapis pruinosa, is a solitary ground-nesting native that forages only on Cucurbita flowers and pollinated pumpkins long before honeybees reached the Americas; gardeners short on bees sometimes hand-pollinate.
Q 18What type of flower do pumpkin plants produce?
Yellow-orange flowers
Yellow-orange flowers: pumpkins bear large yellow-orange trumpet-shaped blooms, with separate male and female flowers on the same plant; bees move pollen from the males to the fruit-bearing females.
Q 19What scientific species name covers most common carving pumpkins?
Cucurbita pepo
Cucurbita pepo: the species of most carving and field pumpkins also includes acorn squash, zucchini, and most ornamental gourds.
Q 20Most canned pumpkin in the United States is actually made from which variety?
Dickinson pumpkins
A rainy 2015 spring caused a poor harvest and a Christmas canned-pumpkin shortage.
Utah: the air cannon 'Big 10 Inch' fired a pumpkin 5,545.43 feet at Moab on 9 September 2010, the Guinness record; Moab's high, thin, dry air is thought to add range.
Q 24At peak growth, a giant pumpkin can gain up to how much weight in a single day?
50 pounds
Structural calculations suggest a perfect pumpkin could reach 20,000 pounds before collapsing.
Q 25Which American writer grew a prize 123-pound pumpkin in 1857?
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau: in 1857 he grew a 123-pound squash-type pumpkin in Concord from government-issued seed and wrote about it in his unfinished manuscript 'Wild Fruits'.
Q 26Pumpkins are an especially rich source of which nutrient?
Vitamin A
A 100-gram serving provides 47% of the daily value, with vitamin C the only other micronutrient present in meaningful amounts.
Q 27What weight did Travis Gienger's world-record pumpkin reach in 2023?
About 2,750 pounds
About 2,750 pounds: Travis Gienger of Anoka, Minnesota weighed in at 2,749 pounds at the Half Moon Bay championship on 9 October 2023, a world record at the time.
Q 28Which Canadian province hosts Windsor's annual race across Lake Pesaquid in hollowed-out giant pumpkins?
Nova Scotia
The race was founded in 1999 by the son of the man who bred the giant variety the boats are carved from.
Q 29Pumpkin seed oil is a protected speciality of which Austrian state?
Styria
Styria: dark green Styrian pumpkin seed oil, pressed from hull-less Cucurbita pepo var. styriaca seeds, holds protected geographical status and is drizzled on salads and pumpkin soup.
Q 30How does a pumpkin plant spread as it grows?
It sends out long trailing vines
The stems can run 15 to 50 feet, with spring-like tendrils growing from each node.