Peanut

This article is about the crop. For the comic strip, see Peanuts. For other uses, see Peanut (disambiguation).
"Arachis hypogaea" redirects here. For Peanut allergen powder, see Peanut allergen powder-dnfp.
"Goober peas" redirects here. For the folk song, see Goober Peas.

Peanut
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Arachis
Species:
A. hypogaea
Binomial name
Arachis hypogaea
Subspecies and varieties
  • subsp. fastigiata Waldron
    • var. aequatoriana Krapov. & W. C. Greg
    • var. fastigiata (Waldron) Krapov. & W. C. Greg
    • var. peruviana Krapov. & W. C. Greg
    • var. vulgaris Harz
  • subsp. hypogaea L.
    • var. hirsuta J. Kohler
    • var. hypogaea L.
Synonyms[1]
  • Arachis nambyquarae Hoehne
  • Lathyrus esquirolii H. Lév.

The peanut (Arachis hypogaea), also known as the groundnut,[2] goober (US),[3] goober pea,[4] pindar (US)[3] or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics by small and large commercial producers, both as grain legume[5] and as an oil crop.[6] Atypically among legumes, peanut pods develop underground leading botanist Carl Linnaeus to name peanuts hypogaea, which means "under the earth".

The peanut belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), commonly known as the legume, bean, or pea family.[1] Like most other legumes, peanuts harbor symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules,[7] which improve soil fertility, making them valuable in crop rotations.

Despite not meeting the botanical definition of a nut as "a fruit whose ovary wall becomes hard at maturity,"[8] peanuts are usually categorized as nuts for culinary purposes and in common English.

Peanuts are similar in taste and nutritional profile to tree nuts such as walnuts and almonds, and, as a culinary nut, are often served in similar ways in Western cuisines. World production of shelled peanuts in 2020 was 54 million tonnes, led by China with 34% of the total.

  1. ^ a b "Arachis hypogaea (L.)". The World Flora Online. World Flora Consortium. 2024. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
  2. ^ USDA GRIN Taxonomy, retrieved June 29, 2016
  3. ^ a b Domonoske, Camila (April 20, 2014). "A Legume With Many Names: The Story Of 'Goober'". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020.
  4. ^ Beattie, H. R. (1911). "Farmer's Bulletin No. 431". USDA National Agricultural Library. "The peanut is known under the local names of "goober," "goober pea," "pindar," "ground pea," and "groundnut." The names "goober" and "goober pea" are more properly applied to an allied species having no true stem and only one pea in each pod which has been introduced and is frequently found growing wild in the Gulf Coast States."
  5. ^ Hymowitz, Theodore . (1990). "Grain Legumes". In Janick, J.; Simon, J.E. (eds.). Advances in new crops. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. pp. 54–57.
  6. ^ "Oil crops for the production of advanced biofuels". European Biofuels Technology Platform. Archived from the original on September 9, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  7. ^ "Legumes Of The World | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew". www.kew.org. Retrieved September 29, 2015.
  8. ^ "The Peanut Institute – Peanut Facts". peanut-institute.org. Archived from the original on April 8, 2019.