What does the Caterpillar sit on while smoking a hookah?

The Caterpillar sits on a mushroom while smoking a hookah.

The scene appears in Chapter V, “Advice from a Caterpillar,” of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Alice encounters the character in the forest, where he is perched on a mushroom and questions her about who she is. His repeated question, “Who are you?”, highlights Alice’s confusion after repeatedly changing size.

The mushroom is more than furniture: the Caterpillar explains that eating from one side will make Alice larger, while eating from the other will make her smaller. Alice experiments with the pieces and eventually uses them to control her height. Readers sometimes remember the mushroom as the Caterpillar’s magical object rather than the place where he sits, while film adaptations may emphasize his blue color, smoke, or transformation into a butterfly. John Tenniel’s original illustration helped establish the instantly recognizable hookah-smoking Caterpillar.