Q 01/05

The peach was first domesticated in which country?

A) Persia (Iran)

B) China

C) India

D) Greece

Answer · why

B) China

The Latin name persica is a leftover of the Roman belief that peaches came from Persia, a mistake botanists repeated for centuries.

Q 02/05

A peach with a fuzz-free glossy skin is sold under what name?

A) Apricot

B) Nectarine

C) Plumcot

D) Damson

Answer · why

B) Nectarine

Nectarine is the name for a fuzzless peach: it is the same species, not a hybrid, and a single recessive gene switches off the fuzz.

Q 03/05

Peaches, cherries, plums and apricots all belong to which genus?

A) Malus

B) Pyrus

C) Citrus

D) Prunus

Answer · why

D) Prunus

Prunus is the stone-fruit genus within the rose family, Rosaceae; its members share a single hard pit inside fleshy fruit.

Q 04/05

Which US state earned the nickname 'the Peach State' in the decades after the Civil War?

A) South Carolina

B) Georgia

C) Alabama

D) Mississippi

Answer · why

B) Georgia

Georgia earned the name in the three decades after the Civil War, when its growers shipped trainloads of peaches north and the orchards boomed.

Q 05/05

The fuzz on a peach's skin is made of tiny hairs called what?

A) Trichomes

B) Stomata

C) Lenticels

D) Cilia

Answer · why

A) Trichomes

Trichomes are the fine hair-like outgrowths of the skin's epidermal cells that give a peach its fuzz; stomata are pores and lenticels are breathing sp...