Animal, Vegetable or ??? Anagrams Quiz

Answer: Animal

The anagrammed letters should turn into an 'elephant'. As it turns out, the challenge in the clue would go unanswered as elephants can't jump, according to various sources. Reasons given include that they have a different way of dealing with predators and that their anatomy is such that they have no spring in their legs.

Answer: Animal

'Bring him mud' turns into 'hummingbird'. They don't actually use mud in their nests and it is the female bird that makes them. Twigs, leaves, moss, lichen and spider's silk are the typical components, producing a camouflaged soft bowl to house the eggs.

Answer: Animal

Cool cider would be wasted on a crocodile (the anagram of 'cool cider'). They are said to get their water mostly from captured prey. Having no gills, they don't breathe underwater. When they bite a prey animal in water, the palatal valve closes off the throat to prevent them swallowing water. Instead they breathe through their nostrils.

Answer: Animal

'I scorn a hero' gives the 'rhinoceros', one of the few megafauna still existing. Unfortunately targetted by hunters for their horns (sought after in the tradition Chinese medicine market), they are very much under threat. The horns are made of keratin, which is the same material as found in your hair and fingernails.

Answer: Animal

Yes, 'wildebeest' makes an 'edible stew'. Also called a gnu, it is an antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. Of the two species, the blue wildebeest does the migrations whilst the black wildebeest is nomadic. Grazing in mixed herds with zebras is common and increases their collective security. The gnus also listen to warning signals from other species such as baboons.

Answer: Vegetable

'Awful recoil' anagrams to produce 'cauliflower'. Perhaps there are some people who react badly to them. A member of the Brassica genus, the four main groups are said to have developed from broccoli about 2,500 years ago. Most commonly white in colour, you can also get them coloured orange, green or purple.

Answer: Vegetable

Secret wars are probably not necessary although wild sources of 'watercress' (the anagram here) are prized where I live. A member of the Nasturtium (meaning 'nose-twister') family, it is related to such plants as garden cress, mustard, radish and wasabi. Just to confuse things, the plant with the common name of nasturtium is actually from the Tropaeolum genus.

Answer: Vegetable

'Slag sermon' anagrams to give 'lemongrass', from the Cymbopogon genus of grass. It is used as a culinary ingredient and as a medicinal herb mainly because of its lemony scent. A couple of species are used to produced citronella oil, which is used in soaps and as an insect repellent.

Answer: Vegetable

'Spur a saga' gives 'asparagus', a perennial spring vegetable. Normally green-coloured, white asparagus is also prized. This is achieved by mounding up soil around the spear as it grows. Without exposure to sunlight, the shoot is not able to photosynthesize and so remains white.

Answer: Vegetable

Anagram 'omit a toll' to get 'tomatillo', a perennial member of the nightshade family. Normally cultivated as an annual rather than a perennial, it is a Mexican staple. Covered by a lantern-like husk, the fruit is a pale green and tomato-like. It is eaten raw or cooked. Salsa verde is one recipe using the tomatillo.

Answer: ???

'Bangladesh' is the country anagram of 'he slang bad'. This low-lying South Asian country opens onto the Bay of Bengal, surrounded on three sides by India with a small section at its south-eastern extremity shared with Myanmar. At the north, Nepal, Bhutan and China are nearby neighbours.

The country is dominated by the Ganges river delta and has over 50 rivers originating in other countries that pass through it. Water politics are complicated.

Answer: ???

Sandwiched between Belgium, France and Germany, Luxembourg (the anagram of 'glue rum box') is one of Europe's smallest countries at 998 square miles or 2,586 square kilometres. Luxembourgish, a Germanic language, is the official language of the people although French is the language used for legislation. German is added to the other two for administrative matters.

In 2023 about half the population were immigrants with Portuguese the largest group at over 15% of the total population.

Answer: ???

Mixing up 'in tan gear' with give you the South American country of 'Argentina', the second-largest on the continent after Brazil. It has the highest and lowest points in the Southern and Western Hemispheres, the mountain Aconcagua at 6,959 m (22,831 ft) and the salt lake Laguna del Carbón at -105 m (-344 ft) below sea level.

Answer: ???

Anagram 'giant ash fan' to get 'Afghanistan', a mountainous country lying between Central and South Asia. It holds a key geopolitical location and as a result has been subjected to military campaigns for over two thousand years, including by the Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great, the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan, the Mughal Empire, various Persian Empires and the British Empire.

Answer: ???

Anagram 'lantern shed' and you get 'Netherlands', a low-lying European country. Just over a quarter of its land area lies below sea level as well as just over 20% of the population. Floods over the years have claimed thousands of lives. The 1953 flood drowned 1,800 and sparked off the Delta Works, a large-scale flood prevention programme which took over 40 years to complete.