Garden Trivia

Here are the answers to Grangetto's Garden Trivia questions.

Plant Vocabulary Answer
1. Cloves are the dried flower buds of a tropical shrub or small tree. True. The buds of Eugenia aromatica are picked and dried, then sold around the world as cloves. An oil made from the leaves and stems is used in perfumes.
2.Nutmeg and mace both come from the same plant. True. The fruit of the nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans, is a golden, fleshy, plum-sized globe that bursts open when ripe. The large, brown seeds are enclosed in a fleshy bag called an aril sac. The aril is dried and sold as mace, while the seeds are ground into nutmeg.
3. Vanilla is obtained from the seed pod of an orchid. True. The vanilla bean is the fruit of a South American climbing orchid. The Aztecs had been using it both as a flavoring and a medicine centuries before the Spanish invasion.
4. Allspice is a blend of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. False. Allspice is the dried, unripe berry of a West Indian laurel, Pimenta officionalis, one of Columbus’s favorite discoveries in the New World.
5. Ginger is made from the seeds of a flowering shrub. False. Ginger is obtained from the fleshy roots of Zingiberaceae officinale. After the tops die, the tubers are dug, then boiled, dried, bleached and ground.
6. Turmeric is the basic ingredient of many curry powders. It is ground from the roots of a plant which grows in India. True. Tumeric is made from Curcuma longa, a relative of ginger.
7. Cinnamon is made from the dried pulp of unripe fruit harvested from the cinnamon tree. False. Cinnamon is produced from the inner bark of Cinnamon zeylanicum.
8. The chocolate tree (Theobroma, which translates “food of the gods”) is a native of Latin America. True. The fruits of the chocolate tree are pods that range in size from six to nine inches in length and three to four inches in width, and contain twenty to thirty seeds. The flowers and later the pods grow right out of the trunk and older branches, and the trees are virtually ever-bearing. They will grow and even fruit in your home greenhouse.
9. The Spice Islands (the Moluccas) are home to nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom and tumeric. True. The Moluccas in the Indian Ocean are home to the widest variety of commercial spice plants. The islands have been important to trade since the time of Marco Polo.
10. Coriander, caraway and anise are all members of the carrot family. True. The carrot family, Umbelliferaceae, also includes parsley, celery, fennel, parsnip and poison hemlock.
11. Saffron is made from the seed of a member of the thistle family. False. Saffron is derived from the flowers of a variety of autumn crocus. It can take thousands of flowers to produce one once.