Q 01/05

What process do trees use to convert sunlight into energy?

A) Respiration

B) Transpiration

C) Germination

D) Photosynthesis

Answer · why

D) Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis uses sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to build sugars; the oxygen that trees release is a by-product, split off from the water rather...

Q 02/05

What term describes trees and shrubs that seasonally shed all their leaves, usually in autumn?

A) Evergreen

B) Deciduous

C) Coniferous

D) Sclerophyllous

Answer · why

B) Deciduous

Deciduous, from the Latin for 'falling off': trees such as oaks and maples drop their leaves to save water and get through winter, then have to regrow...

Q 03/05

A California bristlecone pine more than 4,600 years old is named after which biblical figure?

A) Noah

B) Abraham

C) Methuselah

D) Melchizedek

Answer · why

C) Methuselah

Methuselah takes its name from the Bible's longest-lived man, said to have reached 969; the pine's exact spot in the White Mountains has long been kep...

Q 04/05

What part of a tree primarily transports water and nutrients from the roots to the leaves?

A) Xylem

B) Cambium

C) Phloem

D) Bark

Answer · why

A) Xylem

Xylem carries water and dissolved minerals up from the roots; as a tree thickens, its older xylem cells die and harden into the heartwood that holds t...

Q 05/05

Which common product is primarily made from wood pulp?

A) Charcoal

B) Cork

C) Paper

D) Rubber

Answer · why

C) Paper

Paper was made mostly from rags until the 1840s, when a shortage of them pushed inventors on both sides of the Atlantic to pulp wood instead.