Peanut Groundnut Plants Leave Stock Photo

The peanut, also known as the groundnut, goober US, pindar US or monkey nut UK, and taxonomically classified as Arachis hypogaea, is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, being important to both small and large commercial producers. It is classified as both a grain legume and, due to its high oil content, an oil crop. 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`.