Q 01/05

In which part of the world were potatoes first domesticated?

A) South America

B) North America

C) Southeast Asia

D) Northern Europe

Answer · why

A) South America

South America: Andean farmers bred the potato from wild species too bitter to eat, and it reached Europe only after the Spanish conquest of the Incas ...

Q 02/05

What is the scientific name for the common cultivated potato?

A) Brassica oleracea

B) Solanum lycopersicum

C) Daucus carota

D) Solanum tuberosum

Answer · why

D) Solanum tuberosum

Solanum tuberosum: growers plant its tubers rather than seed, so each variety is a clone of its parent, and that lack of genetic diversity leaves popu...

Q 03/05

Which French queen is said to have worn potato blossoms to make the crop fashionable?

A) Marie Antoinette

B) Catherine de' Medici

C) Anne of Austria

D) Marie de' Medici

Answer · why

A) Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette: she and Louis XVI are said to have worn the flowers after the pharmacist Parmentier gave them a bouquet, part of his campaign to win...

Q 04/05

Which country grows about a quarter of the world's potatoes?

A) Russia

B) China

C) United States

D) Ukraine

Answer · why

B) China

China: it grew roughly 95 million of the world's 375 million tonnes in 2022, ahead of India, although the crop reached China only in the late Ming dyn...

Q 05/05

The potato blight behind Ireland's Great Famine was caused by what type of organism?

A) Bacterium

B) Insect pest

C) Plant virus

D) Water mould

Answer · why

D) Water mould

A water mould, Phytophthora infestans, is an oomycete: it looks and behaves like a fungus but belongs to a separate lineage, and it thrives in cool, w...