Red Fruits Trivia Quiz

Strawberries are in the Fragaria genus, in the Rosaceae family (so they're distantly related to roses). Despite their name, they're not actually berries - they're accessory fruits, which means that they come from a different part of the plant to the flower. Strawberries originally grew in forests in the UK, and the modern strawberry we eat today is the result of crossbreeding with strawberry variants imported from the Americas.

In the UK, they're often served with cream at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, with the leafy bits cut off, and are a popular ingredient in jams and shortcake; strawberry shortcake even had a cartoon character named after it.

Redcurrants are in the same family as gooseberries, and are native to Europe (the ones in this photo are from Ukraine); in several regions, they have gone from being cultivated to growing in the wild. Like gooseberries, they have a slightly tart taste.

A variant, the whitecurrant, is paler with translucent flesh and has a sweeter taste. Redcurrant jelly goes very well with roast lamb. In France, they are used to make a type of jam called Bar-de-luc, while in Austria, they are a popular filling for Linzertorte, a shortbread cake topped with jam and nuts.

In some parts of Germany, redcurrant syrup is made into a fizzy drink called Johannisbeerschorle.

Yes, plums are often thought as a purple fruit, but you can get red ones as well - in fact, when I was in infant school, we used to sing a song that featured the line 'the apples are ripe and the plums are red'. Plums are drupes, fleshy fruits with a big stone in the middle. China is the world's biggest grower of plums - you might have seen plum sauce on the menu at a Chinese restaurant - and the fruits were imported to the UK from China. Serbia and Romania are also major plum growers, and plum brandy, or slivovitz, is a popular drink in Balkan countries. Dried plums are known as prunes.

If you're American, you'll know cranberry as the fruit you have in a sauce with your turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Here in the UK, it's sometimes served with Christmas dinner. Cranberries are berries that grow on a shrub and are originally green, but turn red when they're ripe.

They're in such high demand in the US that they have a special committee dedicated to them, the Cranberry Marketing Committee, who represent various cranberry growers and farmers. Because they have quite a sour taste, the vast majority of them are made into juice or sauce, or dried and sweetened. Cranberry juice can also be used as a dye.

The lingonberry, a shrub with a tart taste, is one of the rarer fruits in this quiz, but Scandinavian players will have heard of it, as it's often used to make sauces and jams there. In Sweden, lingonberry jam is a traditional accompaniment to köttbullar (Swedish meatballs), and it also goes with reindeer or elk steak. Lingonberries are also consumed in Alaska and Canada; some indigenous Alaskans mix the berries with fish eggs, fish and seal or whale blubber, while in Novia Scotia, they are used to make cakes and pies.

Historically, lingonberries were consumed in northern countries to combat scurvy, as they contain vitamins B and C; in Russia, they are used to make a juice called mors.

How did that cheeky yellow fellow sneak in there? Raspberries are from the Rubus genus and, like strawberries, they come from the rose family; however, they grow on brambles, like blackberries and loganberries, and are also known as 'cane fruit' because canes can be used as supports to help grow them.

The little red balls that contain the seeds that get stuck in your teeth are called drupelets. They are most commonly used for jams, but also for juices and liqueurs such as the Belgian Framboise beer and the French Chambord, and herbal teas. Russia is the world's biggest producer of raspberries.

Cherries, unlike other fruits in this quiz, grow on trees. They come from the Prunus family, the same family as plums, and are also drupes. Cherries from the Cerasus subgenus, which also contains the iconic Japanese cherry blossom tree, are known as 'true cherries'.

The ones you see in greengrocers and supermarkets are usually sweet cherries, and are used for pies, cakes, jams and juices; glacé cherries are stoned cherries that have been preserved in a sticky sugar syrup. Sour cherries, which are darker and have a tarter taste, are also used in jams, preserves in the Balkans, liqueurs such as the Portuguese ginjinha, and the famous German Black Forest Gateau.

Pomegranates grow on shrubs and are originally from Central Asia, where they are still consumed today; pomegranate seeds can be eaten raw and are used as a garnish in countries such as Turkey and Iran. They spread to east Asia via the Silk Road. Grenades get their names from pomegranates (the French word for pomegranate being 'grenadier'). Pomegranates can also be used to make juice or a syrup called grenadine, used as a basis for cocktails.

In Judaism, pomegranates are associated with the festival of Rosh Hashana, as they are seen as a symbol of abundance and plenty, and the fruits are said to contain as many seeds as there are commandments in the Torah.

Grapes grow on vines and come in a variety of colours, from dark blue and red (like the ones shown here) to green and yellow. Since ancient times, grapes have been used in winemaking; red grapes are used to make red wine. They are also used to make juice, which can be used as a non-alcoholic wine substitute.

When red grapes are dried, they become raisins. Grapes that are grown to be eaten fresh, rather than made into wine or dried, are known as table grapes. In Spain, it is customary to eat twelve grapes at once on New Year's Eve, representing the coming twelve months.

The humble apple, originally from Central Asia, needs no introduction. From apple juice and cider to apple crumble, applesauce and that all-American favourite, apple pie, it's one of the most popular fruits in the world. It also features in myths and legends, from the Norse goddess Idun's golden apples to the poisoned apple that killed Snow White, and the apple of discord that the Trojan hero Paris gave to the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Red apple cultivars include the Braeburn, the pepper-like Red Delicious, the Fuji and the Norfolk Royal.