Peanut
Legume cultivated as a grain and oil crop / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Peanut | |
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Scientific 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 | |
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Synonyms[1] | |
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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, important to both small and large commercial producers. It is classified as both a grain legume[5] and, due to its high oil content, an oil crop.[6] Atypically among legume crop plants, peanut pods develop underground (geocarpy) rather than above ground. With this characteristic in mind, the botanist Carl Linnaeus gave peanuts the specific epithet 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] The capacity to fix nitrogen means peanuts require less nitrogen-containing fertilizer and improve soil fertility, making them valuable in crop rotations.
The botanical definition of a nut is "a fruit whose ovary wall becomes hard at maturity." Using this criterion, the peanut is not a nut.[8] However, peanuts are usually categorized as nuts for culinary purposes and in common English more generally. 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.