Peanuts

legumes · underground plants · nutrition

Underground growers. Peanuts are unusual legumes because they grow their pods underground, not above it like most plants. This strange habit is so uncommon that scientist Carl Linnaeus gave them the species name 'hypogaea,' which means 'under the earth' in Greek.

Grown worldwide. Peanuts thrive in tropical and subtropical climates and are grown by both small farmers and huge commercial farms all around the world. They're farmed both for their nutritious seeds and for peanut oil.

Really a legume. Even though we call them nuts, peanuts are actually legumes, which makes them cousins to beans and peas. The edible seeds grow inside underground pods that you have to dig up to harvest.

Many nicknames. Different parts of the world call peanuts by different names: groundnuts, goobers, goober peas, pindars, and even monkey nuts in the UK. All these names describe the same amazing underground crop.