The Incredible Peanut :: Botany

The Incredible PeanutAccording to Websters New collegial Dictionary, a monkey nut is a low-branching, widely cultivated, leguminous, yearly herb with garish yellow flowers having a peduncle which elongates and bends into the soil where the ovary ripens into a cod deporting one to three edible seeds (7). However, this definition does not even start to give any indication of the importance of the groundnut as an sylvan power in the world today. Therefore, this paper will discuss the unimportant including its history, economic uses, and other pertinent information regarding this amazing plant.The scientific figure for the common, commercially grown peanut is Arachis hypogaea L. Contrary to popular opinion, however, the peanut is not really a nut such as a pecan or walnut. It is actually a close relative of the macabre eyed pea in the family Leguminosae. Legumes are plants in which the roots contain nodules of nitrogen fixing bacteria which return remarkable amounts of nitrogen to the soil. Logically, the peanut is a perfect crop to rotate in with soil depleting plants resembling cotton and is used extensively for this purpose (8). The peanut plant is a sparsely hairy, taprooted, annual bush about 45 cm gangling when mature. The four main botanical varieties are Virginia, Spanish, Valencia, and Peruvian Runner. They are severalize from each other by branching habit, branch length, and hairiness. The most arouse facet of peanut growth is the development of the seeds. After the small, yellow flowers fecundate themselves, the stalks at the bases of the ovaries, called narrow downs, elongate rapidly and turn downward due to geotropism. The peg then buries itself several inches in the ground to mature in some four months (6). In order for peanuts to be grown efficiently, several habitat criteria must be met. One of these is a suitable climate. For best yields, peanuts admit a growing period of 4-5 months with a steady, rather high temperature and an ann ual rainfall of about 50-100 cm. The growing season must be long, stiff and moist, but the harvest season must be dry so the pods will pull out of the ground. Another requirement is a light-col6red, wellspring drained, sandy loam soil. If the peanuts are grown in too heavy soil, the pods will remain in the ground when the plants are harvested (4). Peanuts are grown in countries with warm climates all around the world. India produces about six million careful tons annually and is easily the worlds leading producer.