Cucumbers
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40 free Cucumbers trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The cucumber looks like the plainest thing in the salad drawer, yet it has a longer and stranger story than most vegetables. It has been grown for thousands of years, pampered by an emperor, mocked by doctors, carried across an ocean and blamed for an outbreak it did not cause. It has also lent its name to a sea animal, a skyscraper and a slow week in the newsroom. This quiz covers the plant itself (where it comes from, what it is made of and what its relatives are), the pickle jar in all its styles, and the dishes and drinks built around a cool green slice, from yogurt dips and cold soups to summer cocktails and afternoon tea. A further run of questions follows cucumbers into literature, television, music, folklore and internet fame. It suits a food-themed quiz night, a gardening club, a classroom lesson on plants, or anyone who has ever wondered what a pickle really is. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which pets leapt in fright at cucumbers placed behind them in a wave of viral videos in 2015?
Cats
Cats were reacting to an object that had appeared where they did not expect one, behaviourists said, and they urged owners to stop because a startled pet can injure itself.
Q 02The sea cucumber is an animal, not a plant, and belongs to the same group as which sea creature?
Starfish
Starfish and sea cucumbers are both echinoderms, built on a five-part body plan that the sausage-shaped sea cucumber hides by lying on its side.
Q 03Which playwright has Algernon eat every cucumber sandwich meant for Lady Bracknell in an 1895 comedy?
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde opens The Importance of Being Earnest with the joke, and Algernon then has his manservant claim that the market had no cucumbers that morning.
Q 04Despite its name, the yard-long Armenian cucumber is botanically a variety of which other fruit?
Melon
Melon is the true species of the Armenian cucumber, also sold as snake cucumber, which tastes and looks inside much like the real thing.
Q 05In VeggieTales, what is the name of the cucumber who co-hosts with Bob the Tomato?
Larry
Larry the Cucumber, introduced in 1993 and voiced by Mike Nawrocki, is Bob's optimistic and whimsical best friend.
Q 06Which bathroom scrubber is the dried fibrous skeleton of a vine fruit related to the cucumber?
Loofah
Loofah is the fully ripened fruit of the luffa vine, processed until nothing is left but its network of tough fibres.
Q 07Which substance makes up about 95 percent of a raw cucumber, leaving only 16 calories per 100 grams?
Water
Water accounts for nearly all of a cucumber's weight; the rest is about 4% carbohydrate and 1% protein, with almost no fat.
Q 08In which animated series does a scientist turn himself into a pickle to avoid family therapy?
Rick and Morty
Rick and Morty won its first Emmy for the 2017 episode Pickle Rick, a parody of action films.
Q 09In which country were cucumbers first domesticated from a wild form more than 3,000 years ago?
India
India is still home to a great many cucumber varieties and to the crop's closest living relative, Cucumis hystrix.
Q 10Which Roman emperor, Pliny the Elder wrote, had cucumbers on his table every day of the year?
Tiberius
Tiberius had them grown in raised beds on wheels that were rolled into the sun and then sheltered under glazed frames in winter, an early kind of greenhouse.
Q 11Which explorer is credited with bringing cucumbers to the Americas, reaching Haiti in 1494?
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was sailing for Spain, and by 1535 Jacques Cartier found very large cucumbers growing where Montreal now stands.
Q 12Which country grows more than three quarters of all the cucumbers harvested in the world?
China
China harvested 78% of the 88 million tonnes grown worldwide in 2024.
Q 13Which of these crops belongs to the gourd family of plants, along with the cucumber?
Pumpkin
Pumpkin, squash and courgette all share the cucumber's family, a group of about 965 species that botanists also call the gourd family.
Q 21Hendrick's gin, launched in Scotland in 1999, is infused with cucumber and which flower?
Rose
Rose essence from Bulgaria goes in alongside the cucumber, and the makers suggest a cucumber slice in the glass in place of the usual citrus.
Q 22What do the French call the tiny, tart pickled cucumbers traditionally served with pâté?
Cornichons
Cornichons are pickled in vinegar and tarragon, and they are a traditional partner for cold cuts as well.
Q 23Omar and Cora Fanning's sweet 1920s pickles are said to be named for which staples they bartered them for?
Bread and butter
Bread and butter is what the Illinois cucumber farmers are said to have got from their grocer in exchange, and they filed for a trademark on the name in 1923.
Q 14Which Greek dip of strained yogurt, cucumber and garlic is served with souvlaki and gyros?
Tzatziki
Tzatziki takes its name from the Turkish cacık, and close cousins of the dish are eaten from the Balkans to West Asia.
Q 15Which cooling yogurt side dish, often made with cucumber, is served with pulao and spicy curries?
Raita
Raita is usually served chilled, and its name comes from rai, the Hindi word for the black mustard seeds that are often fried into it.
Q 16Which cold Andalusian soup blends raw cucumber with tomato, peppers, garlic and olive oil?
Gazpacho
Gazpacho only turned red in the 19th century, when tomatoes were added to a much older recipe.
Q 17Which brined cheese tops a traditional Greek salad of cucumber, tomato, onion and Kalamata olives?
Feta
Feta is joined by lettuce in American-style versions of the dish, which Greeks know as horiatiki.
Q 18Oi-sobagi, cucumber stuffed with chili paste, is a spring and summer version of which Korean staple?
Kimchi
Kimchi made with cucumber was already listed in a Korean book of 1766, alongside radish versions.
Q 19Which fern-leaved herb, also used to flavour gravlax, gives a classic pickled cucumber its name?
Dill
Dill sometimes goes into the jar as whole flower heads, and it is best used fresh because it loses its flavour quickly once dried.
Q 20Which gin-based English fruit cup is usually garnished with cucumber and mint as a summer long drink?
Pimm's
Pimm's began as a digestive tonic that James Pimm served in small tankards at his oyster bar near the Bank of England.
Q 24Which acid, made by bacteria on the cucumber's skin, sours a brine pickle without any vinegar?
Lactic
Lactic acid is produced by Lactobacillus as the cucumbers ferment in salty brine, and it doubles as the preservative.
Q 25What does the ripe fruit of the squirting cucumber, Ecballium elaterium, shoot out in a slimy jet?
Its seeds
Its seeds are fired out by pressure that builds up in the sap of the fruit, a rare case of rapid movement in a plant.
Q 26Cucumber sandwiches are traditionally served at the tea break of club matches in which English sport?
Cricket
Cricket writes a tea interval into its Laws, and at English clubs the sandwiches are a fixture of the spread that fills it.
Q 27In the Book of Numbers, the wandering Israelites long for the cucumbers they once ate in which land?
Egypt
Egypt is recalled in the same verse for its leeks, onions and garlic, a list that later rabbis picked over when they debated what manna tasted like.
Q 28Which food company gave away pickle-shaped pins at its stand at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair?
Heinz
Heinz had an out-of-the-way booth in an upper gallery of the Agricultural Building, and the free pins were its founder's idea for luring visitors upstairs.
Q 29Japan's cucumber sushi roll is thought to be named after which turtle-shelled creature of folklore?
Kappa
Kappa are said to count cucumbers as their favourite meal, so people still leave them as offerings at festivals, and the roll is called kappamaki.
Q 30Benedictine, a cucumber and cream cheese spread created by Jennie Benedict, comes from which US state?
Kentucky
Kentucky grocers around Louisville, where she ran her catering business, still sell it ready-made, and it began life as a sandwich filling.