The botanical definition of a nut is "a fruit whose ovary wall becomes hard at maturity." Using this criterion, the peanut is not a nut. Peanuts are similar in taste and nutritional profile to tree nuts such as walnuts and almonds, and, as a culinary nut, are often served in similar ways in Western cuisines. The capacity to fix nitrogen means peanuts require less nitrogen-containing fertilizer and improve soil fertility, making them valuable in crop rotations. Like most other legumes, peanuts harbor symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules. The peanut belongs to the botanical family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), commonly known as the legume, bean, or pea family. With this characteristic in mind, the botanist Carl Linnaeus gave peanuts the specific epithet hypogaea, which means "under the earth". Atypically among legume crop plants, peanut pods develop underground ( geocarpy) rather than above ground. World annual production of shelled peanuts was 44 million tonnes in 2016, led by China with 38% of the world total.
It is classified as both a grain legume and, due to its high oil content, an oil crop. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small and large commercial producers.
The peanut ( Arachis hypogaea), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible seeds.
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