The Variety of Vegetables Trivia Quiz

Answer: Courgettes

Zucchini is the Italian name and Courgette the French name for baby marrows. Seed catalogs will use both or either name.

Answer: a relative of the cape gooseberry

The tomatillo may look like a purple tomato, but it comes from a very different plant called Physalis ixocarpa. The fruit grows enclosed in a husk, as it does in the closely related cape gooseberry.

Answer: Marrow or squash

When a mature vegetable spaghetti marrow (squash) is boiled for about 20 minutes and then cut open, the flesh looks just like spaghetti. It is delicious with a tomato sauce!

Answer: Onion, Potato and Tomato

Ailsa Craig is off the coast of Ayrshire, Scotland. Ayrshire is very fertile and a lot of plant breeding has taken place there.

Answer: different species of the same genus

The French bean is derived from Phaseolus vulgaris and there are both climbing and dwarf growing types. The runner bean is derived from Phaseolus coccineus (named for its red flowers)and are usually climbers though there are some dwarf varieties such as Hestia.

Answer: They have attractive flowers sometimes used by flower arrangers

The carrot is related to Queen Anne's Lace and has similar umbels of attractive white flowers. Carrots do not like soil rich in organic matter as it causes the roots to divide. They come in many different colours such as purple, blue and white and some kinds are spherical, not tapered.

Answer: a close relative of the globe artichoke

Cardoons are a coarse form of globe artichoke that has become a serious alien weed in countries such as Australia and Argentina. The cabbage that does not form a heart is called a collard.

Answer: Okra

Okra or ladies fingers is widely used as a thickener in soups and stews such as gumbo. Collard is a type of loose cabbage. Salsify is an unusual root vegetable sometimes called vegetable oyster. Celeriac is another root vegetable, this time with a celery flavour.

Answer: A red form of chicory

Radicchio is the Italian name for the types of chicory that turn red in cold weather and retain some of the red colour when they are forced for winter use.

Answer: Chili pepper

The bell pepper, sweet pepper, capsicum and pimiento are all the same type of plant. They are all a form of Capsicum annuum that has lost the gene for making capsaicin. Chili peppers are from the same species but they are not bell peppers since they are able to make capsaicin which gives the burning sensation when eaten.