Peanut

The peanut is a legume crop whose fertilized flower stalk elongates into the soil, where its pods develop underground. Its seeds are widely eaten as food and used for oil.

Geocarpy: A mode of plant reproduction in which fruits or seeds develop underground. This broader reproductive strategy describes how peanut pods mature beneath the soil.
Fabaceae: The plant family of legumes, including beans, peas, lentils, and peanuts. Peanut belongs to this family, whose members commonly produce seed-bearing pods.
Peanut oil: A vegetable oil extracted from peanut seeds and used in cooking and food manufacturing. The crop’s seeds are a major source of edible oil.
Arachis duranensis: A wild South American peanut species identified as one of the ancestors of cultivated peanut. Its genetic contribution helps explain the cultivated crop’s origin.
Nitrogen fixation: The conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into biologically usable compounds, often by microbes associated with legumes. Peanut root-associated bacteria can add fixed nitrogen to agricultural systems.
Gynophore: A stalk that supports a flower’s ovary and, in some plants, elongates after fertilization. After peanut flowers are fertilized, this stalk bends downward and carries the ovary into soil.
Arachis hypogaea: The cultivated species that produces peanuts. This is the botanical species behind the crop’s familiar common name.
Peanut butter: A food paste made primarily from ground roasted peanuts. This widely consumed spread is one of the most familiar products made from the crop.
Arachis ipaensis: A wild peanut species from Bolivia that contributed a genome to cultivated peanut. Its genome combined with that of another wild species in the crop’s ancestry.
Peanut allergy: An immune reaction to proteins in peanuts that can cause symptoms ranging from mild to life-threatening. The crop’s widespread use makes its allergenic proteins a major food-safety concern.

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