Quick & curious · Nature

Peanuts aren't nuts.

A dug-up peanut plant with pods on its roots
Photo: Pollinator · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Original

The story behind it

The peanut isn't a nut.

Botanically it's a legume, related to peas and beans. Unusually, its pods ripen underground – hence its botanical name hypogaea, "under the earth".

Sources

Every statement in this discovery is backed by one of these sources and was checked before publication.

  1. Wikipedia: Peanut (accessed 2026-10-05)
  2. Wikipedia (German): Hülsenfrüchtler (accessed 2026-10-05)

Image credits