| ≥1 piece |
Peanut, also groundnut or monkey nut, common name for an annual warm-season plant of the legume family, and for its seeds. peanuts originated in South America, probably in Brazil, and have been cultivated since ancient times by Native Americans. Plants grow about 75 cm (30 in) tall and can spread 1.2 m (4 ft). Some forms of the plant develop a bunchy erect growth; others, called runners, spread over the ground. The peanut is unusual in that, when the flower has been fertilized, the elongated receptacle, called the peg, turns downward from the base of the flower stalk to bury the ovary in the soil, where the pod develops. Usually, two seeds develop in each pod.