Autumn Trivia - An HF Quiz

Which famous poet composed 'To Autumn', the classic 1819 poem that begins 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'?

A) John Keats
B) William Wordsworth
C) Samuel Coleridge
D) Robert Burns

A) John Keats

‘To Autumn’ was one of Keats’ ‘odes’ and was published in 1820. He wrote it after a walk along the River Itchen near Winchester — as he tried to escape the sound of his landlady's daughter practising the violin.

Henry David Thoreau wrote that "I would rather sit on a [what], and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."?

A) Fallen tree
B) Bench
C) Pumpkin
D) Pile of leaves

C) Pumpkin

The line features in Walden, Henry Thoreau's classic account of life in a simple one-room cabin in New England, first published in 1854.

In which celebrated children’s classic did the charming line, "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers" appear?

A) Swallows and Amazons, by Arrthur Ransome
B) The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
C) Anne of Green Gables, by LM Montgomery
D) The House at Pooh Corner, by AA Milne

C) Anne of Green Gables

This classic tells the story of a wildly creative little girl who arrives to help with the work at Green Gables and charms her way into local life.

Albert Camus considered that "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a [what]"?

A) Farewell
B) Full stop
C) Flower
D) Fatality

C) Flower

The French author and philosopher was responsible for coining this pretty phrase.

Name the pigment which trees stop producing, thus causing leaves to lose their green colour?

A) Carrotenids
B) Chlorophyll
C) Anthocyanins
D) Haven't a Scooby

B) Chlorophyll

Green plants have the ability to make their own food. They do this through a process called photosynthesis, which uses a green pigment called chlorophyll. In winter, the reduced sunlight means photosynthesis loses its benefits — it costs a tree more energy to support a leaf than the leaf gives back. Autumnal colours then result from other chemicals in the leaves.

A reminder about which event, which happens every October, is provided by an alternative word for autumn?

A) Harvest time
B) The Equinox
C) Trees losing their leaves
D) The end of British Summer Time

D) The end of British Summer Time

Taking its cue from the term 'Fall', the phrase 'March forward, fall back' reminds you which way the clocks move a this time of year.

Come auttumn, squirrels are starting to bury acorns. What is the bird that does the same?

A) Blackbird
B) Jackdaw
C) Jay
D) Starling

C) Jay

Jays are famous for their acorn feeding habits and in the autumn you may see them burying acorns for retrieving later in the winter, Jays 'cache' their acorns in many different places but most often in natural holes, under leaf litter and crevices in tree bark. The jay can remember where it left most of its haul and is thought to use visual clues such as nearby features to help guide it to its booty. They can even dig them out of 40 cm of snow!

How many people attended the biggest ever knock-out conker tournament?

A) 120
B) 395
C) 558
D) 1256

B) 395

In 2011 the annual Hampstead Heath Conker Championship was recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the largest in the world. There were probably a few sore knuckles afterwards!

Thousands of geese over-winter in the UK. What is the collective noun for a group of them on the ground?

A) Gaggle
B) Gander
C) Flock
D) Skein

A) Gaggle

When in flight the collective noun for a group of geese is a skein, team or wedge. When they are flying close together they are called a plump.

This stocky wading bird migrates to the UK in winter in its thousands; what is it

A) Knot
B) Twine
C) String
D) Hawser

A) Knot

The knot is a medium-sized, short, stocky sandpiper that migrates to the UK in large numbers during winter from its Arctic breeding grounds. They are commonly spotted feeding in estuaries around the coast,

At the end of autumn, hedgehogs begin hibernating. But what is a baby hedgehog called?

A) Hedgenipper
B) Ickle-prickle
C) Piglet
D) Hoglet

D) Hoglet

Although the word kit is occasionally used, and sometimes pup or piglet, officially baby hedgehogs are called 'hoglets''.

Male Roe deer lose their antlers each autumn and grow new ones. What's the covering on the new antlers?

A) Down
B) Silk
C) Velvet
D) Fur

C) Velvet

Each antler grows from an attachment point on the skull called a pedicle. While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone.

Swallows head south at this time of year. Do you know which continent many British swallows migrate to?

A) Africa
B) Asia
C) South America
D) Australasia

A) Africa

British swallows spend their winter in South Africa - they travel through western France, across the Pyrenees, down eastern Spain into Morocco and across the Sahara and the Congo rainforest – finally reaching South Africa and Namibia.

The full moon closest to the Autumn equinox is traditionally known as a what?

A) Blue moon
B) Blood moon
C) Supermoon
D) Harvest moon

D) Harvest moon

The "harvest moon" (also known as the "barley moon" or "full corn moon") is the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox (22 or 23 September), occurring anytime within two weeks before or after that date.

In Greek mythology, autumn began when who was abducted by Hades to be the Queen of the Underworld?

A) Leto
B) Persephone
C) Medea
D) Rhea

B) Persephone

In distress her mother, Demeter (the goddess of the harvest), caused all the crops on Earth to die until her daughter was allowed to return, marking spring. However, Persephone must always return to the underworld every year.

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This mushroom got its name because its tubes coming from the ground look like devices to allow the dead and buried to hear. What's its name?

A) All of the below
B) Chanterelle
C) Trompete
D) Horn of Plenty

C) Trompete

Craterellus cornucopioides, or horn of plenty, is an edible mushroom. It is also known as the black chanterelle, black trumpet and trompette de la mort,which derives from 'hearing trumpet of death'.

Pumpkin spice, the official flavor of fall, beloved of pumpkin pie and seasomnal lattes, contains no pumpkin. True or False?

A) True
B) Mmmm, pie
C) Cup of tea please
D) False

A) True

Rather, it’s a spice mix made up of ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground allspice and ground cloves.

Maple, ash and sycamore trees produce seeds with which nickname, due to the way they fly through the air in autumn?

A) Spinning seeds
B) Whirly seeds
C) Helicopter seeds
D) Spiral seeds

C) Helicopter seeds

The term was coined based on the way the seeds spiral through the air as they fall from the tree.