Nature Riddles With Answers
Updated · Best Riddles With Answers editorial team
Quick answer: This page offers 42 nature riddles with answers for children, teachers and families who enjoy the outdoors. The easy riddles describe trees, flowers and landscapes, the middle sets cover plant parts and natural wonders, and the hard set mixes science facts with growth and counting puzzles. Weather has its own page, so these riddles stay on plants, land and living things.
Easy Nature Riddles
I have a trunk but no suitcase, and branches but no bank. Birds nest in me and I wear leaves. What am I?
A tree
I am green and flat, I catch sunlight to make food for my tree, and I fall to the ground in autumn. What am I?
A leaf
I am tiny and hard, but inside me is a whole plant waiting to grow. What am I?
A seed
I am the nut of an oak tree, and squirrels bury me in the ground. What am I?
An acorn
I have petals and a sweet smell, and bees visit me for nectar. What am I?
A flower
I am very tall, I have a rocky peak, and I sometimes wear a white cap of snow. What am I?
A mountain
I am a big area full of trees growing close together, and many animals live in me. What am I?
A forest
I am a dark hollow in a hillside, and bats sleep in me. What am I?
A cave
I am hard and I have no life, and I can be as small as a pebble or as large as a cliff. What am I?
A rock
Birds build me from twigs and grass to keep their eggs warm. What am I?
A nest
I am a silver net woven between two twigs, and on a damp morning I sparkle with dew. What am I?
A spider web
I am a soft green carpet that grows on stones and tree trunks in damp, shady places. What am I?
Moss
Trickier Nature Riddles
I live underground, I drink water for the plant, and I hold it firmly in the soil. What am I?
Roots
I am a brown cone of scales, and I open up when it is dry to let my seeds fall. What am I?
A pine cone
I have feathery green fronds, I never make flowers, and I grow in damp woodland. What am I?
A fern
I wear sharp spines instead of leaves, and I store water inside my body in the desert. What am I?
A cactus
I am a mountain with a hole at the top, and now and then I throw out hot melted rock. What am I?
A volcano
I am the shape of an ancient animal or leaf, pressed into stone for millions of years. What am I?
A fossil
I am a yellow flower in the grass that turns into a white ball, and you blow me to make a wish. What am I?
A dandelion
You count me on a cut tree stump to find out how old the tree was. What am I?
The tree rings
What kind of tree can you carry in your hand?
A palm
Plants use sunlight, water and air to make their own food, and the process has a long name. What is it?
Photosynthesis
I am a tree that stays green in winter, and my leaves are needles. What am I?
An evergreen (such as a pine or fir)
I am a hot, dry place that gets very little rain, with dunes of sand. What am I?
A desert
Hard Nature Riddles
A young tree is 1.2 metres tall and grows 30 centimetres every year. How tall is it after 12 years?
4.8 metres, because 12 x 0.3 = 3.6 and 1.2 + 3.6 = 4.8
A wood has 5 oak trees for every 3 pine trees. There are 40 oaks. How many pines are there?
24, because 40 / 5 = 8 groups and 8 x 3 = 24
A bee visits 50 flowers on each trip, makes 4 trips a day, and works for 5 days. How many flowers does she visit?
1,000, because 50 x 4 = 200 and 200 x 5 = 1,000
I am the green pigment in leaves that traps sunlight. What am I?
Chlorophyll
Plants take me in through their leaves to make sugar, and you breathe me out. What am I?
Carbon dioxide
In the food chain grass is eaten by a rabbit, and the rabbit is eaten by a fox. Which one is the producer that makes its own food?
The grass
I am the tallest tree on Earth, I grow along the coast of California, and I can reach more than 110 metres. What am I?
A coast redwood
I am made from crumbled rock and rotted plants, and it takes hundreds of years to make a few centimetres of me. What am I?
Soil
Deep under the ground I am called magma, but once I pour out of a volcano I get a different name. What is it?
Lava
The air cools by about 6.5 degrees for every 1,000 metres you climb. At the foot of a mountain it is 20 degrees. What is the temperature at the 3,000 metre summit?
0.5 degrees, because 3 x 6.5 = 19.5 and 20 - 19.5 = 0.5
Quick-Fire Nature Riddles
The coloured part of a flower. What am I?
A petal
The thin green tube that holds up a flower. What am I?
A stem
A flower that has not yet opened. What am I?
A bud
The arm of a tree. What am I?
A branch
The rough skin of a tree. What am I?
Bark
A small, smooth stone from the shore or a stream. What am I?
A pebble
The sharp spike on a rose stem. What am I?
A thorn
A grassy field full of wild flowers. What am I?
A meadow
How to Use These Nature Riddles
Nature riddles work best outdoors. Read a riddle on a woodland walk or in the garden, and let children search for the answer nearby. The easy set suits ages four and up, and the quick-fire riddles are good for waiting at a gate or stile.
In a science lesson, use the hard riddles to review plant biology and the food chain. After each answer, ask pupils where they might see the object or process in their own neighbourhood.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good nature riddle for kids?
Try 'I am the nut of an oak tree, and squirrels bury me in the ground.' The answer is an acorn. Riddles about leaves, flowers and nests are easy for young children.
How do tree rings show a tree's age?
A tree adds one new ring of wood each year as it grows. Counting the rings on a cut stump gives its age, and wide rings show good growing years while narrow ones show dry or cold ones.
Why are leaves green?
Leaves contain chlorophyll, a pigment that absorbs red and blue light for photosynthesis and reflects green light. In autumn the chlorophyll breaks down, which lets yellow and orange colours show through.
Where are the weather riddles?
Rain, wind, clouds and storms have a separate weather riddles page. This page covers plants, trees, landscapes and natural features, so each page offers its own set of different riddles.
