Knowledge Check: Forest Wisdom

1. What are guayusa and the kola nut?

An Amazon holly brewed as tea, and a West African rainforest seed that is chewedTwo kinds of coffeeTwo desert cactiTwo ocean plants

2. What happens to guayusa's chemistry when it is grown outside intact forest?

It loses about half of its active compoundsIt becomes twice as strongNothing changesIt turns poisonous

3. What does it mean to say that for guayusa and kola, chemistry is relationship?

Their strength depends on the forest ecosystem around them, not the plant aloneThey only grow when two plants are marriedTheir chemistry never changes anywhereThey have no active compounds

4. What is agroforestry, the right way to grow these plants?

A forest garden, growing the crop among many species under a real canopyClearing the forest for open fieldsGrowing the plant indoorsA single-crop plantation

5. What is the main threat to guayusa forest in Ecuador?

Cattle ranchingPalm-oil plantationsCoffee farmingToo much rain

6. How is much of this forest being protected?

Indigenous land rights, like the Achuar territory, and West African sacred grovesBy clearing it for safer cropsBy fencing it off from all peopleIt is not protected at all

7. What is the Achuar Wayus Aramu?

A pre-dawn guayusa ceremony that has been a community institution for over a thousand yearsA modern energy-drink brandA type of forest treeA trade tax

8. How did the West African kola trade work across the Sahara?

Forest kola was carried over a thousand miles by camel to hubs like Timbuktu, gaining a large markupKola was shipped by sea to Europe onlyKola was never traded outside its forestKola was flown north by plane

9. What is a reciprocity economy, as seen with guayusa and kola?

Exchange based on long-term relationships and mutual obligation rather than cashA stock market for plantsA system with no exchange at allPaying only in gold

10. What famous product did John Pemberton create in 1886 using kola extract?

Coca-ColaPepsiCoffeeTea