What have hemp (Cannabis), pineapple (Ananas) and cotton (Gossypium) got in common?

What kind of plant do bananas (Musa acuminata) grow on?

What do the English call the Scottish harebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)?

Why was the lens in a camera or magnifying instrument so-called?

What plant’s leaf structure is said to have been the inspiration for the radiating framework of the Crystal Palace which housed the Great Exhibition of 1851?

What wood is traditionally used for making cricket bats?

What popular schoolboy ammunition did Sir Walter Raleigh introduce to Europe?

What do Americans call the English marsh marigold or kingcup?

What connects ‘tulip mania’ of the 1630s with bourse (the French name for ‘Stock Exchange’)?

What is the American Hoosier Poet (James Whitcomb Riley) describing with the words

And sich pop-paws! – Lumps o’ raw
Gold and green, – jes’oozy th’ough
With ripe yaller – like you’ve saw
Custard-pie with no crust to

What is the official national floral emblem of Australia?

What plants are referred to in the name of the beverage Coca Cola?

What plant is said to be responsible for the establishment of the Ethiopian Airlines?

What is the Western European sweetmeat, marron glacé made of?

When sugar (Saccharum officinarum) became recognised as a worldwide commodity in the 18th and 19th Centuries what economic role did it fulfil?

From which plant can morphine, laudanum and codeine be extracted?

What plant is common to the discovery/invention of cellulose nitrate, celluloid, artificial silk, viscose – and paper?

In 1947 the Norwegian anthropologist, Thor Heyerdahl built his raft Kon-Tiki from nine trees and sailed it from Peru to the Tuamato Islands. What was the tree?

When, roughly, is the art of silk-making believed to have been discovered in China?