Q 01/05

Arugula, grown since the Roman era, had its seeds stirred into old concoctions meant to act as what?

A) Sleeping draughts

B) Aphrodisiacs

C) Painkillers

D) Poison antidotes

Answer · why

B) Aphrodisiacs

Aphrodisiacs were arugula's old claim to fame: a first-century Greek herbal said that eating the leaves raw in quantity stirred desire, and that the s...

Q 02/05

Which British astronaut kept two kilograms of arugula seeds on the International Space Station?

A) Helen Sharman

B) Michael Foale

C) Piers Sellers

D) Tim Peake

Answer · why

D) Tim Peake

Tim Peake's six-month mission carried about a million seeds; once home, they went out to thousands of British schools to be grown beside seeds that ha...

Q 03/05

Which presidential candidate was mocked in 2007 for asking Iowa farmers about the price of arugula?

A) Barack Obama

B) Mitt Romney

C) Hillary Clinton

D) Joe Biden

Answer · why

A) Barack Obama

Barack Obama cited what Whole Foods charges while arguing that farm policy should back specialty crops; he later joked that Iowans know perfectly well...

Q 04/05

Arugula and rocket both descend from the Latin word eruca, which also meant which small creature?

A) A praying mantis

B) A snail

C) A caterpillar

D) A dormouse

Answer · why

C) A caterpillar

A caterpillar and the salad plant shared one Latin name, eruca, which became ruca and its diminutive ruchetta in Italian before English turned it into...

Q 05/05

London rocket, a cousin of arugula, reputedly got its name by thriving in the city after which disaster?

A) The Great Fire

B) The Great Plague

C) The Blitz

D) The Great Stink

Answer · why

A) The Great Fire

The Great Fire of 1666 left ash and rubble that the plant quickly colonised, though a botanist who combed London's bomb sites after 1940 failed to fin...