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
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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 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.
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