Q 01/05

Which part of the potato plant is the potato we eat?

A) A swollen underground stem

B) The thick main root

C) The green fruit

D) The bud of the flower

Answer · why

A) A swollen underground stem

It is called a tuber. The plant uses it to store food for itself, which is why it is so full of starch.

Q 02/05

Where in the world did people first grow potatoes?

A) The rice fields of China

B) The farms of Ireland

C) The Nile valley in Egypt

D) The Andes mountains of South America

Answer · why

D) The Andes mountains of South America

Farmers near Lake Titicaca, in what is now Peru and Bolivia, were growing them thousands of years before the pyramids were built.

Q 03/05

Roughly how long ago were potatoes first farmed?

A) About 200 years ago

B) About 500 years ago

C) 7,000 to 10,000 years ago

D) About 1,000 years ago

Answer · why

C) 7,000 to 10,000 years ago

That is older than the pyramids of Egypt. All today's potatoes come from that one early wild species.

Q 04/05

Which explorers first brought potatoes across the ocean to Europe?

A) The Vikings

B) The Spanish

C) The Chinese

D) The Romans

Answer · why

B) The Spanish

They came back with them after conquering the Inca Empire in the 1500s. Europeans took a long time to trust the strange new food.

Q 05/05

Potatoes are cousins of which other food plant?

A) The carrot

B) The tomato

C) The apple

D) The onion

Answer · why

B) The tomato

Both belong to a plant family called the nightshades. After flowering, a potato plant even grows little green fruits that look like tiny green tomatoe...