These trivia questions about trees come in five rounds: name that tree, record trees, how a tree works, wood and what is made from it, and famous trees and tree customs.
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Five rounds, from bark to bonsai
Name that tree describes bark, seeds and flowers in words, from paper birch to the monkey-puzzle. Record trees visits the redwoods, the bristlecone pines and the stoutest trunk in the world. How a tree works covers sapwood, taproots and crown shyness. Wood and what is made from it runs from cork and charcoal to cricket bats. Famous trees and tree customs has Arbor Day, the Major Oak and a few state trees.
For Arbor Day, a class or a nature club
The card deals ten questions at a time. Tap a choice and it shows the right answer, the reason and the page where it was read. Scored round asks 20 and marks them together at the end.
Questions and answers
What are some easy trivia questions about trees?
Pine nuts are which part of a pine tree? Most wooden baseball bats are made from which wood? Which state has two state trees, the coast redwood and the giant sequoia? The answers are its seeds, ash and California.
What is the oldest kind of tree?
The Great Basin bristlecone pine, which the National Park Service calls the oldest non-clonal species on the planet. The Prometheus tree, of that species, was estimated at between 4,700 and 5,200 years old.
How deep do redwood roots go?
Only 10 to 13 feet, says the National Park Service, before they spread outward 60 to 80 feet. Coast redwoods have no taproot, and apart from logging the most frequent cause of death for a mature one is windthrow.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 on the page linked under it: three National Park Service pages for 14 questions, the Arbor Day Foundation's history page for 3, and Wikipedia for the rest. A record is given as its page stated it that day.
A banyan is known for which kind of roots?Answer: Prop roots that become extra trunks. Source: Wikipedia: Banyan
A slim, cylindrical flower cluster with small petals or none, usually pollinated by the wind, is called what?Answer: A catkin. Source: Wikipedia: Catkin
An acorn is borne in a cup. What do botanists call the cup?Answer: A cupule. Source: Wikipedia: Acorn
Despite the Babylon in its scientific name, the weeping willow is native to dry areas of which country, among others?Answer: China. Source: Wikipedia: Salix babylonica
Dracaena cinnabari, a tree of the island of Socotra, is named for the color of its sap. What is it called?Answer: The dragon's blood tree. Source: Wikipedia: Dracaena cinnabari
European limes and North American basswoods belong to one genus of trees. Which name do they share?Answer: Linden. Source: Wikipedia: Tilia
How did the bristlecone pine get its name?Answer: Each scale of its cone is tipped with a claw-like bristle. Source: National Park Service: Great Basin National Park, Bristlecone Pines
The Joshua tree is a species of which plant?Answer: Yucca. Source: Wikipedia: Yucca brevifolia
Mottled bark that flakes off in large, irregular masses, leaving patches of gray, greenish-white and brown: which North American tree?Answer: American sycamore. Source: Wikipedia: Platanus occidentalis
The needles of a Great Basin bristlecone pine are about an inch long. In packets of how many do they grow?Answer: Five. Source: National Park Service: Great Basin National Park, Bristlecone Pines
The pecan is a species of which group of trees?Answer: The hickories. Source: Wikipedia: Pecan
The pewen, or Chile pine, is better known in English by which odd name?Answer: The monkey-puzzle tree. Source: Wikipedia: Araucaria araucana
Pine nuts are which part of a pine tree?Answer: Its seeds. Source: Wikipedia: Pine nut
The roots and nut husks of which tree hold a chemical that turns into juglone, which holds back some neighboring plants?Answer: Black walnut. Source: Wikipedia: Juglans nigra
Which tree is named for thin white bark that peels from the trunk in paper-like layers?Answer: Paper birch. Source: Wikipedia: Betula papyrifera
Woody "knees" often stand around the trunk of which tree?Answer: Bald cypress. Source: Wikipedia: Taxodium distichum
Record trees 16
A coast redwood grows from a seed no bigger than the seed of which garden plant?Answer: A tomato. Source: National Park Service: Redwood National and State Parks, About the Trees
A fence stands around the General Sherman Tree. What does it protect?Answer: The shallow roots of the tree. Source: National Park Service: The General Sherman Tree
About how much of a coast redwood's moisture comes from fog?Answer: About 40 percent. Source: National Park Service: Redwood National and State Parks, About the Trees
About how old was the Prometheus tree, once recorded as the oldest living thing in the world, estimated to be?Answer: Between 4,700 and 5,200 years. Source: National Park Service: Great Basin National Park, Bristlecone Pines
The Árbol del Tule has the stoutest tree trunk in the world. In which country does it stand?Answer: Mexico. Source: Wikipedia: Árbol del Tule
The Fortingall Yew is considered one of the oldest trees in Britain. In which country does it stand?Answer: Scotland. Source: Wikipedia: Fortingall Yew
The Great Basin bristlecone pine is found in only three states: California, Nevada and which other?Answer: Utah. Source: National Park Service: Great Basin National Park, Bristlecone Pines
How deep do the roots of a coast redwood go?Answer: Only 10 to 13 feet. Source: National Park Service: Redwood National and State Parks, About the Trees
In a harsh year, a Great Basin bristlecone pine may not even add what?Answer: A ring of growth. Source: National Park Service: Great Basin National Park, Bristlecone Pines
Jōmon Sugi is the oldest and largest specimen of the tree Cryptomeria japonica. On which island does it grow?Answer: Yakushima. Source: Wikipedia: Jōmon Sugi
Old Tjikko has a root system that was carbon-dated to about 9,550 years. Which kind of tree is it?Answer: A Norway spruce. Source: Wikipedia: Old Tjikko
The tallest of all flowering plants is a eucalyptus. In which Australian state does the tallest measured living one, named Centurion, stand?Answer: Tasmania. Source: Wikipedia: Eucalyptus regnans
Tāne Mahuta is the biggest kauri tree alive. In which country does it grow?Answer: New Zealand. Source: Wikipedia: Tāne Mahuta
The Tree of Ténéré, a solitary acacia, was once considered the most isolated tree on Earth. In which desert did it stand?Answer: The Sahara. Source: Wikipedia: Tree of Ténéré
Which pine does the National Park Service call the oldest non-clonal species on the planet?Answer: The Great Basin bristlecone pine. Source: National Park Service: Great Basin National Park, Bristlecone Pines
The wood in the General Sherman Tree would be enough to build about how many average-sized houses?Answer: 120. Source: National Park Service: The General Sherman Tree
How a tree works 17
Aside from logging, what most often kills a mature coast redwood?Answer: Windthrow. Source: National Park Service: Redwood National and State Parks, About the Trees
At about what age is a maple usually first tapped for syrup?Answer: 30 to 40 years. Source: Wikipedia: Maple syrup
Chestnut blight devastated the American chestnut in the first half of the twentieth century. What kind of disease is it?Answer: A fungal disease. Source: Wikipedia: American chestnut
The cork cambium, a layer in the bark of a tree, has which other name?Answer: Phellogen. Source: Wikipedia: Bark (botany)
Hard, knotty growths on a living redwood can sprout a new tree when the trunk is damaged. What are they called?Answer: Basal burls. Source: National Park Service: Redwood National and State Parks, About the Trees
Ordinary pine cones respond to moisture. When are they open?Answer: When they are dry. Source: Wikipedia: Cone (botany)
What do botanists call the process by which a plant sheds its leaves?Answer: Abscission. Source: Wikipedia: Deciduous
What in the wood of a coast redwood keeps insect damage slight?Answer: Its high tannin content. Source: National Park Service: Redwood National and State Parks, About the Trees
What is a large, central, dominant root, from which other roots sprout sideways, called?Answer: A taproot. Source: Wikipedia: Taproot
What is the edge beyond which trees are not able to grow, on a mountain or toward the poles, called?Answer: The tree line. Source: Wikipedia: Tree line
What is the partnership between a fungus and the roots of a plant called?Answer: A mycorrhiza. Source: Wikipedia: Mycorrhiza
What is the stalk that attaches a leaf to the twig, branch or stem called?Answer: The petiole. Source: Wikipedia: Petiole (botany)
What is the younger, outermost wood of a trunk called?Answer: Sapwood. Source: Wikipedia: Wood
When the crowns of neighboring trees stop short of touching and leave channels of sky between them, what is it called?Answer: Crown shyness. Source: Wikipedia: Crown shyness
Which insects spread Dutch elm disease?Answer: Elm bark beetles. Source: Wikipedia: Dutch elm disease
Which layer of dividing cells makes xylem on its inner side and phloem on its outer side?Answer: The vascular cambium. Source: Wikipedia: Vascular cambium
Which traditional woodland craft cuts a tree down to a stump so that new shoots grow from it?Answer: Coppicing. Source: Wikipedia: Coppicing
Wood and what is made from it 19
A dugout canoe is made from what?Answer: A hollowed-out tree trunk. Source: Wikipedia: Dugout canoe
The blade of a cricket bat is made of which wood?Answer: Willow. Source: Wikipedia: Cricket bat
Ebony comes from trees of the genus Diospyros. Which fruit tree belongs to the same genus?Answer: The persimmon. Source: Wikipedia: Ebony
How is charcoal made from wood?Answer: By heating it strongly with very little oxygen. Source: Wikipedia: Charcoal
In the timber trade, what makes wood a hardwood?Answer: It comes from a flowering tree. Source: Wikipedia: Hardwood
The kapok tree is cultivated for which part?Answer: The cottonlike fiber around its seeds. Source: Wikipedia: Ceiba pentandra
Lignum vitae is one of the hard, dense woods loosely known by which name?Answer: Ironwood. Source: Wikipedia: Lignum vitae
Most wooden baseball bats are made from which wood?Answer: Ash. Source: Wikipedia: Baseball bat
North American bark canoes were covered with the bark of which tree?Answer: Birch. Source: Wikipedia: Birch bark
Oak bark was long used in tanning. Which compounds, abundant in the bark, are named for that use?Answer: Tannins. Source: Wikipedia: Tannin
Once a cork oak is 25 years old, how often can its bark be harvested without harm to the tree?Answer: Every 9 to 12 years. Source: Wikipedia: Quercus suber
Plywood is made of thin layers of wood veneer, stacked and glued. What are the layers called?Answer: Plies. Source: Wikipedia: Plywood
Softwood is wood from which kind of tree?Answer: Conifers and other gymnosperms. Source: Wikipedia: Softwood
Tool handles, bows, wheel spokes and drumsticks are traditional uses of which wood?Answer: Hickory. Source: Wikipedia: Hickory
Totem poles of the Pacific Northwest Coast are mostly carved from which tree?Answer: Western red cedar. Source: Wikipedia: Totem pole
Turpentine is obtained from the resin of which trees?Answer: Pines. Source: Wikipedia: Turpentine
Which soft tropical wood is famous in woodworking for high strength at a very low density?Answer: Balsa. Source: Wikipedia: Ochroma
Which timber was favored for pencils because it was aromatic and did not splinter when sharpened?Answer: Red cedar. Source: Wikipedia: Pencil
Which tropical hardwood is used for boat building, exterior construction and furniture?Answer: Teak. Source: Wikipedia: Teak
Famous trees and tree customs 17
According to local folklore, which English oak sheltered Robin Hood and his Merry Men?Answer: The Major Oak. Source: Wikipedia: Major Oak
The Angel Oak is a southern live oak on Johns Island. In which state?Answer: South Carolina. Source: Wikipedia: Angel Oak
The apple tree that grew in Isaac Newton's garden was of which variety?Answer: Flower of Kent. Source: Wikipedia: Flower of Kent
Bonsai is a Japanese art. What is the similar Chinese art called?Answer: Penjing. Source: Wikipedia: Bonsai
The Charter Oak, a very large white oak that fell in a storm in 1856, grew in which city?Answer: Hartford, Connecticut. Source: Wikipedia: Charter Oak
The dawn redwood was first reported in 1941 from what?Answer: Fossils. Source: Wikipedia: Metasequoia glyptostroboides
The first Arbor Day was April 10. Which date was chosen in 1885 for its permanent yearly observance?Answer: April 22. Source: Arbor Day Foundation: History of Arbor Day
Florida and South Carolina share a state tree. Which palm is it?Answer: The sabal palm. Source: Wikipedia: List of U.S. state and territory trees
From 1882 the Arbor Day custom of planting trees became prominent where?Answer: In schools. Source: Arbor Day Foundation: History of Arbor Day
In which year was the United States Forest Service established?Answer: 1905. Source: Wikipedia: United States Forest Service
The Lone Cypress at Pebble Beach, California, is which kind of tree?Answer: A Monterey cypress. Source: Wikipedia: Lone Cypress
The state tree of Hawaii is the kukui. By which English name is it also known?Answer: The candlenut tree. Source: Wikipedia: List of U.S. state and territory trees
The Tree of 40 Fruit bears many kinds of fruit on one tree. Which technique makes that possible?Answer: Grafting. Source: Wikipedia: Tree of 40 Fruit
What is the craft of clipping trees and shrubs into clearly defined shapes called?Answer: Topiary. Source: Wikipedia: Topiary
Which newspaper editor first proposed a tree-planting holiday called Arbor Day?Answer: J. Sterling Morton. Source: Arbor Day Foundation: History of Arbor Day
Which state has two state trees, the coast redwood and the giant sequoia?Answer: California. Source: Wikipedia: List of U.S. state and territory trees
Which tree is the state tree of both Massachusetts and North Dakota?Answer: The American elm. Source: Wikipedia: List of U.S. state and territory trees
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, facts from the page named and linked beside it. Each answer was checked on 2026-10-03 against that page, fetched that day: three pages of the National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov) on the General Sherman Tree, the coast redwoods and the bristlecone pines for 14 questions; the Arbor Day Foundation's History of Arbor Day (https://www.arborday.org) for 3; and the English Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license) for the rest, with the state trees read in the table of its list of state trees. This site is not affiliated with the National Park Service or the Arbor Day Foundation. Record trees (the stoutest, the oldest of their kind, the biggest living kauri) are given as the page stated them on 2026-10-03; a record can pass to another tree. Not repeated here, because other quizzes on this site already ask them: the species of the General Sherman Tree, Pando, why aspen leaves tremble, the larch and the ginkgo in fall, the state where Arbor Day began, the tallest tree by name, tree rings as a science, xylem, stomata and the Wollemi pine. Nothing here is advice on planting, pruning or using any part of a tree. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits a gardener or a hiker, hard will stump most of them. Each round is stored easiest first, and each question carries the date its page was read. Licence: own work