Q 01/05

Botanically, what kind of fruit is a tomato?

A) A berry

B) A drupe

C) A pepo

D) A pome

Answer · why

A) A berry

It is eaten as a vegetable, and in 1893 the US Supreme Court agreed to treat it as one, at least for tariffs.

Q 02/05

The tomato belongs to which plant family, alongside potatoes, tobacco and chili peppers?

A) Nightshade

B) Gourd family

C) Rose family

D) Legume family

Answer · why

A) Nightshade

Early Europeans assumed the new fruit was poisonous for exactly that reason and grew it as an ornamental.

Q 03/05

From which language does the word 'tomato' ultimately come?

A) Arabic

B) Quechua

C) Nahuatl

D) Latin

Answer · why

C) Nahuatl

Spanish 'tomate' came from the Aztec 'tomatl'; the Aztecs called red ones 'xitomatl'.

Q 04/05

The wild ancestor of the tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium, is native to which region?

A) The Caribbean

B) Central Mexico

C) The Amazon basin

D) Western South America

Answer · why

D) Western South America

It grows in Chile, Peru and Ecuador; the domesticated plant was probably first a cherry-sized tomato.

Q 05/05

Which conquistador's 1521 capture of Tenochtitlan set the tomato on its way to Europe?

A) Hernán Cortés

B) Hernando de Soto

C) Pedro de Alvarado

D) Francisco Pizarro

Answer · why

A) Hernán Cortés

Bernardino de Sahagún described Aztec markets selling large, small, sweet, serpent and nipple-shaped tomatoes in every colour from red to yellow.