Q 01/05

Which temperate tree, famed for its autumn colour, shares the lychee's plant family, Sapindaceae?

A) Oak

B) Maple

C) Birch

D) Beech

Answer · why

B) Maple

Maple trees sit in the same family as the lychee, making the tropical fruit a distant cousin of the tree behind pancake syrup. Horse chestnuts are rel...

Q 02/05

One lychee from a 400-year-old tree in Zengcheng, China, fetched roughly how much at a 2002 auction?

A) About $670

B) About $6,700

C) About $67,000

D) About $670,000

Answer · why

C) About $67,000

About $67,000 was the winning bid for a fruit weighing roughly half an ounce. The tree, called Xiyuangualu, once supplied Qing emperors and yields onl...

Q 03/05

Which shaggy-skinned relative of the lychee takes its name from the Malay word for hair?

A) Rambutan

B) Durian

C) Mangosteen

D) Salak

Answer · why

A) Rambutan

Rambutan comes from rambut, Malay for hair, after the soft spines that cover its rind. Peel one and the translucent flesh inside looks much like a lyc...

Q 04/05

Eaten on an empty stomach by undernourished children, unripe lychees can dangerously lower what?

A) Blood pressure

B) Body temperature

C) Blood sugar

D) Heart rate

Answer · why

C) Blood sugar

Blood sugar can crash because the fruit carries toxins that stop the body making fresh glucose overnight. Investigators in India advised parents to ma...

Q 05/05

Lychees with shrivelled seeds, prized for extra flesh, are named after the tongue of which bird?

A) Duck

B) Chicken

C) Sparrow

D) Parrot

Answer · why

B) Chicken

Chicken tongue is the growers' name for a thin, aborted seed, the result of faulty pollination. Such fruits sell for more because there is more to eat...