The peanut is a crop that flowers above ground, then pushes a stalk called a peg into the soil, where its pods ripen. Despite the name, it isn't a true nut; it was domesticated in South America thousands of years ago and is grown in the US mainly across the South. It's also called groundnut or goober.
Appearance
- Growth form
- An annual about 12–20 in (30–50 cm) tall.
- Leaves
- Each leaf has four leaflets in two pairs, with no leaflet at the tip. The leaflets fold up at night.
- Flowers
- Small yellow-orange, pea-like flowers about 1/2 in (1–1.5 cm) across, with reddish veins. They start about 25–40 days after planting.
- Fruit
- The peg shows up about a week after a flower is fertilized and grows down into the soil, about 1–2 in (3–5 cm) deep, where the pod forms. Pods are 1–3 in (3–7 cm) long with one to four seeds.
Look-alikes
Sicklepod grows up to about 5 ft (1.5 m) tall, has 2–4 pairs of egg-shaped leaflets, and bears long, thin, sickle-shaped pods 5–10 in (12–25 cm) above ground. Peanut stays low at 12–20 in, has exactly two pairs of leaflets, and forms its pods underground.
Why they get mixed upSicklepod is a major weed in US peanut fields, and both are legumes with paired leaflets and yellow flowers.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Farm fields
- Sandy soil
- Home gardens
- Range
- Not native to the US; grown as a crop mainly in the Southeast (Georgia, Alabama, Florida), the Southwest (Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico), and the East (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina). Georgia grows about half of the US crop.
- Preferred conditions
- Needs a long warm season and loose, well-drained, sandy soil with enough calcium for the pods to fill. In South Carolina, planting runs from April in coastal counties to June in the Piedmont.
Growing it
- Care
- Green peanuts for boiling are ready about 90–110 days after planting; dry peanuts for roasting take 130–150 days.
- Propagation
- Grown from seed.
- Toxicity
- About 1.4–2% of people in the US and Europe are allergic to peanuts, with reactions that can be life-threatening. Moldy or badly stored peanuts can carry , so the USDA tests raw peanuts.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Peanuts are believed to come from a single cross between two wild South American species, followed by a doubling of chromosomes.
- Varieties and forms
- US growers sort peanuts into four market types: Runner (the main peanut-butter type), Virginia (large, for roasting and boiling), Spanish, and Valencia (often 3–5 seeds per pod).
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- George Washington Carver (1864–1943) promoted peanuts in the South, where cotton had worn out the soil, and published bulletins on growing peanuts and the many ways to use them.
- The name 'goober' comes from a Kikongo word, by way of the American South.
- Boiled green peanuts are a Southern specialty.
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