Candy & Nuts

The peanut or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is a species in the pea family Fabaceae native to South America. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing to 30 to 50 cm (one to one and a half feet) tall. more...

The leaves are alternate, pinnate with four leaflets (two opposite pairs; no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 1 to 7 cm (1/3 to 2.75 inches) long and 1 to 3 cm (1/3 to 1 inch) broad. The flowers are a typical peaflower in shape, 2 to 4 cm (3/4 to one and a half inches) across, yellow with reddish veining. After pollination, the fruit develops into a legume 3 to 7 cm (1 to 2 inches) long containing 2 to 3 (rarely 1 or 4) seeds, which forces its way underground to mature.

Although a nut in the culinary sense, in the botanical sense the fruit of the peanut is a woody, indehiscent legume or pod and not technically a nut.

Peanuts are also known as earthnuts, goobers, goober peas, pindas, pinders, manila nuts and monkey nuts (the last of these is often used to mean the entire pod, not just the seeds).

Cultivation

Evidence demonstrates that the peanut was domesticated in prehistoric times in South America, where wild ancestors are still found. Cultivation spread as far as Mesoamerica where the Spanish conquistadores found the tlacucahuatl (Nahuatl=peanut, whence Mexican Spanish, cacahuate or cacahuete) being offered for sale in the marketplace of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), as they are still offered by street vendors there today. The plant was later spread worldwide by European traders. Cultivation in North America was popularized by African Americans, who brought the Kikongo word goober.

Read more at Wikipedia.org