Flowers that only bloom once
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Flowers That Only Bloom Once — Daily trivia Saturday, October 24, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Which animal has starved in the wild when its staple plant flowered across whole mountainsides at once and died?
- AKoala
- BOrangutan
- CGiant panda
- DSloth
Show answer
Giant panda
Giant panda: bamboo flowers once, all together, and dies, and such die-offs have starved panda populations in China's mountains, where the forest needs five to ten years to recover.
Q 02Which poisonous flower, whose Latin name means 'finger', usually blooms once, in its second summer, and yielded a heart drug?
- AHollyhock
- BFoxglove
- CMullein
- DSweet William
Show answer
Foxglove
Foxglove's poison is its medicine: the heart drug digitalis comes from the leaves of a plant toxic in every part, which grows a leafy rosette one year, flowers the next and dies.
Q 03Tequila's blue agave gets a single bloom, then dies; what do growers do when its flower stalk appears?
- ACut it off
- BNet it against bats
- CStake it upright
- DWrap it in cloth
Show answer
Cut it off
Cut it off: once it flowers the agave is useless for tequila and soon dead, so the jimadores slice away each stalk and the plant keeps ripening for the harvest.
Q 04A carrot's one and only bloom comes in its second summer; what keeps most gardeners from ever seeing it?
- AHarvest in the first year
- BFlowers that open underground
- CBuds snipped by growers
- DBreeding that ended flowering
Show answer
Harvest in the first year
Harvest in the first year: left in the ground, the plant overwinters, sends up tall stalks topped with clusters of tiny white flowers, sets seed and dies, which is how growers get carrot seed at all.
Q 05Hawaii's silversword blooms once, then dies; why is that bloom wasted unless neighbours flower too?
- ALone stalks topple
- BGoats eat stragglers
- CIt can't self-pollinate
- DFrost kills lone blooms
Show answer
It can't self-pollinate
It can't self-pollinate: a silversword can live 90 years before its single flowering, and with no other plant in bloom nearby to swap pollen with, it sets almost no seed.
Q 06After 80 years, an agave in a Michigan greenhouse raised its single bloom; what did its stalk force staff to do?
- ALower the floor
- BMove it outdoors
- CBend it sideways
- DRemove a roof pane
Show answer
Remove a roof pane
Remove a roof pane: outdoors the plant would have bloomed within 25 years, but under glass it waited 80, then its stalk grew nearly six inches a day to 28 feet before the plant died.
Q 07When bamboo across India's Mizoram flowers at once and dies, which animal's population boom brings famine?
- AElephants
- BRats
- CMonkeys
- DWild boars
Show answer
Rats
Rats: Mizoram's Melocanna bamboo flowers together about every 48 years, the seed feast sets off a rat explosion, and when the seeds run out the rats devour stored grain.
Q 08The Queen of the Andes, a spiky giant that flowers once after decades and dies, is a relative of which fruit?
- ACoconut
- BDate
- CPrickly pear
- DPineapple
Show answer
Pineapple
Pineapple: Puya raimondii is the biggest bromeliad, the pineapple's family, and after 40 to 100 years it towers up to 15 metres in flower, then dies.
Q 09Each sago palm stem flowers once, then dies; why do farmers fell it just before it blooms?
- AIts wood is softest
- BIts leaves make better thatch
- CIts seeds would spread
- DIts trunk holds most starch
Show answer
Its trunk holds most starch
Its trunk holds most starch: the plant stores it to fuel its single flowering, and farmers wash that starch out of the crushed pith as sago.
Q 10Each banana stem flowers only once, and supermarket bananas are seedless; so what is every new plant?
- AA wild-banana seedling
- BA clone of its parent
- CA graft on wild roots
- DA lab-bred hybrid
Show answer
A clone of its parent
A clone of its parent: each stem dies after its one flowering, so growers replant the shoots from its base, and a plantation is one plant copied again and again, which is why a single disease can threaten the whole crop.
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