Consider the following pairs:
| Plant | Description | |
|---|---|---|
| I. | Cassava | Woody shrub |
| II. | Ginger | Herb with pseudostem |
| III. | Malabar spinach | Herbaceous climber |
| IV. | Mint | Annual shrub |
| V. | Papaya | Woody shrub |
How many of the above pairs are correctly matched?
Answer & explanation
Answer: (b) Only three
Cassava (woody shrub), ginger (herb with a pseudostem) and Malabar spinach (climber) are matched correctly. Mint is a herbaceous perennial, not an annual shrub, and papaya is a tree-like herb, not a woody shrub. That makes three correct pairs.
- ✓ I FAO describes cassava as a woody perennial shrub that grows 1 m to 5 m tall.
- ✓ II Ginger is a slender perennial herb; its leafy shoot is a pseudostem formed by the leaf sheaths, not a true stem.
- ✓ III Malabar spinach (Basella) has soft, succulent, branched climbing stems, so it is a herbaceous climber.
- ✗ IV Mint is a herbaceous perennial that spreads by stolons; it is a herb, not a shrub.
- ✗ V FAO calls papaya a fast-growing tree-like herb, so it is not a woody shrub.
Remember · Cassava = woody shrub; ginger = herb with a pseudostem; Malabar spinach = climber; mint = herbaceous perennial; papaya = tree-like herb (not woody).
Sources
- FAO: Save and Grow: Cassava (2013) ↗ “Botanically, cassava is a woody perennial shrub, which grows from 1 m to 5 m in height.”
- Spices Board India: Ginger ↗ · reference work “Ginger is a slender perennial herb, 30-50 cm tall with palmately branched rhizome bearing leafy shoots. The leafy shoot is a pseudostem formed by leaf sheath and bears 8 to 12 distichous leaves.”
- FAO: Trees commonly cultivated in Southeast Asia (Carica papaya) ↗ “A fast growing tree-like herb, 10–30 cm in diameter and 2 to 10 m high.”
- Review of the genus Mentha (peer-reviewed, hosted by NIH/PMC) ↗ “Mint species are aromatic, herbaceous perennial plants that are characterized by wide-spreading underground and overground stolons”
- Basella alba L. (Malabar spinach) paper (peer-reviewed, hosted by NIH/PMC) ↗ “Plants classified under the Basella genus are edible succulents characterized by small, dark blue stone fruits and distinctive branched, climbing stems with alternate leaves.”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2025, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·