Q 01/05

The potato is often called a root vegetable, but botanists say it is really a swollen what?

A) Flower bud

B) Leaf

C) Fruit

D) Stem

Answer · why

D) Stem

Stem: a potato is a tuber, the swollen tip of an underground stem, and the plant packs it with starch as its own food store.

Q 02/05

Where in the world did people first grow potatoes?

A) In the Alps

B) In the Andes

C) In the Himalayas

D) In the Pyrenees

Answer · why

B) In the Andes

In the Andes: farmers near Lake Titicaca, in today's Peru and Bolivia, tamed the potato from wild plants that were too bitter to eat.

Q 03/05

About how long ago did people first start farming potatoes?

A) About 80 years ago

B) About 800 years ago

C) About 8,000 years ago

D) About 80,000 years ago

Answer · why

C) About 8,000 years ago

About 8,000 years ago, which makes potato farming far older than Egypt's pyramids; yet nobody in Europe, Asia or Africa tasted a potato until about 45...

Q 04/05

Which explorers first brought potatoes across the ocean to Europe?

A) The Portuguese

B) The Spanish

C) The Dutch

D) The Vikings

Answer · why

B) The Spanish

The Spanish met the potato while conquering the Inca Empire, and by the 1570s their Canary Islands were growing it for sale and shipping it on to nort...

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

The tomato is a close cousin: after flowering, a potato plant even grows small green berries that look like tiny tomatoes, though farmers plant pieces...