Oh... Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea? Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The animated Spongebob is a sponge. But what kind of fungus is the animal that is named after "Mr. Squarepants"?

Answer: Mushroom

Though Spongebob Squarepants is a sponge, the Spongiforma squarepantsii is actually a type of mushroom. The fungus was discovered by Dr. Desjardin.

Dr. Dennis Desjardin is a mycologist who specializes in mushroom taxonomy. Along with his colleagues, Desjardin has discovered over 200 species of mushrooms. Interestingly, some of the mushrooms he has discovered are luminescent!

2. "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" We know this to be Spongebob Squarepants, the animated sponge, but the fungus lives in Borneo. Where is Borneo?

Answer: Southeast Asia

Borneo is the third largest island in the world. It is an island that is mostly rainforest, which is even older than the Amazon. The island of Borneo is split between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Indonesia owns the largest portion of Borneo.

3. "Absorbent and yellow and porous is he." The fungus was named after Spongebob Squarepants because it is absorbent and porous, but if you squeeze the fungus, it will mush in your hand and be destroyed.

Answer: False

Actually, when the Spongiforma squarepantsii is wet and fresh, it acts just as a sponge does. You can wring it out with your hands and when you release, it will return to its original shape, just like a sponge. Most mushrooms do not have this ability (and if you don't believe me, try squeezing the mushrooms at your local supermarket).

4. "Absorbent and yellow and porous is he." Though Spongebob is yellow, the new fungus is not. It is orange. However, when a 3% potassium hydroxide is sprinkled on the fungus, it turns purple. Which of these is actually a shade of purple?

Answer: Fandango

Fandango is a shade of purple that has a pinkish hue to it, and is therefore also a shade of pink. Cerulean, Teal, and Cyan are all shades of blue (and teal is also a shade of green).

The fungus Spongiforma squarepantsii is not fandango, but rather a brilliant violet-type purple when 3% potassium hydroxide is applied.

5. The Spongebob Squarepants fungus looks a lot like a certain organ in the human body. Don't think too hard: the gray matter of the fungus looks like what organ?

Answer: Brain

The Spongebob Squarepants mushroom looks like a brain due to many deep ridges and folds throughout the fungus. Because it's a mushroom, it has a stalk, which even looks like the cerebellum of the brain!

6. When viewing the Spongebob Squarepants fungus a certain way, it resembles Spongebob's home of Bikini Bottom. How do you have to view it in order to see the "seafloor with tube sponge" appearance?

Answer: Through a microscope

If you view the Spongiforma squarepantsii through electron microscopy, the surface of the mushroom looks like a "seafloor with tube sponges" all over it. This closely resembles Bikini Bottom, Spongebob's home city, which is yet another reason the mushroom was given the name "Spongebob Squarepants".

Quotation: Dr. Desjardin

7. Does the Spongiforma squarepantsii have a stem and cap?

Answer: No

Though the Spongebob mushroom is a mushroom, it has adapted to not having a stem and cap. The purpose of a stem is to lift the spores of the mushroom into the air so the wind can carry them. The purpose of the cap is to keep the spores from drying out. Since the Spongebob Squarepants lives in the rainforest, it is very moist and its sponge-like qualities are well adapted to sucking in minute droplets of water from the air and storing it.

Therefore, there is no need for a cap to keep it moist.

8. Which of these words best describes the texture of the Spongiforma squarepantsii?

Answer: Rubbery

Since the Spongebob Squarepants is a mushroom that seems like a sponge, and is squeezable, glassy can be ruled out right away. It's like a sponge, so it won't be smooth either. Though the mushroom feels like a sponge, the unique feature it also possesses is that it is rubbery. Sponges do not normally feel rubbery, but this particular sponge-like mushroom is rubbery.

9. There is a similar fungus from the same species as the Spongebob Squarepants called the Spongiforma thailandica. In what country do you suppose this fungus was found?

Answer: Thailand

The Spongiforma thailandica was so named because of where it was discovered, in Thailand. Since one species of this mushroom was discovered in Thailand and then another was discovered in Borneo, it is assumed by scientists that several more species are thriving somewhere between the two locations. That's not all, however, because scientists believe their habitat may reach even further than these two locations, and in fact could be found over the entire globe.

10. According to science, with the discovery of the Spongiforma squarepantsii, we are close to finding all the species of fungus that exists. In fact, there are only 100-1,000 species left undiscovered. Is the above a true statement?

Answer: No

The statement made is not even close to the truth! Scientists believe there are at least one and a half million species of fungus up to three million species of fungus worldwide. Of these, only five percent of the species are known and named. In fact, Dr. Desjardin said that he and his team travel to mostly unexplored rainforests for months at a time, just collecting and studying different mushrooms.

In any single trip, 25% of their finds were previously unknown to science! Little is truly known about mushrooms.

Source: Author salami_swami

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Exit10 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Oh... Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea? Quiz

Spongebob Squarepants! OK, so we have all seen quizzes about Spongebob in TV and For Children, but this quiz is all about a different Spongebob. It's about a newly discovered species named after the famous animated yellow square.

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