Q 01/05

In Nix v. Hedden (1893), the Supreme Court ruled that for tariff purposes the tomato is what?

A) Vegetables

B) Berries

C) Spices

D) Grains

Answer · why

A) Vegetables

The justices agreed tomatoes are botanically fruits but said the tariff law used the everyday meaning of the words, and tomatoes are served with dinne...

Q 02/05

The likely wild ancestor of the tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium, is native to which region?

A) The Nile Delta

B) Western South America

C) The Iberian Peninsula

D) The Yangtze basin

Answer · why

B) Western South America

The plant may have been domesticated in South America, Mexico or Central America before Spanish ships carried it to Europe in the 16th century.

Q 03/05

Widespread infections of what forced the Gros Michel banana to be replaced by the Cavendish?

A) Black sigatoka

B) Bunchy top virus

C) Panama disease

D) Moko wilt

Answer · why

C) Panama disease

The soil fungus that wiped out Gros Michel plantations has a new strain, Tropical Race 4, that now threatens the Cavendish in the same way.

Q 04/05

Cavendish bananas take their name from William Cavendish, who held which English title?

A) Earl of Sandwich

B) Marquess of Bath

C) Viscount Melbourne

D) Duke of Devonshire

Answer · why

D) Duke of Devonshire

His head gardener Joseph Paxton grew the plants at Chatsworth House and described them as Musa cavendishii.

Q 05/05

Bananas are very slightly radioactive because of which naturally occurring isotope?

A) Potassium-40

B) Carbon-14

C) Radium-226

D) Iodine-131

Answer · why

A) Potassium-40

The informal 'banana equivalent dose' uses one banana as a yardstick for tiny radiation exposures, roughly 0.1 microsievert.