The Mystery of Underground Peanuts

Unlike almost every other legume, peanuts grow their seeds beneath the soil. After a flower is pollinated above ground, it buries itself into the dirt to develop into the peanut pod we eat.

This bizarre process is called geocarpy, which literally translates to earth fruit. The plant starts with a yellow flower that droops down toward the ground once fertilized. It then pushes a stem-like peg deep into the earth to protect its developing seeds from pests and heat. This unique botanical quirk is exactly why Linnaeus named the species hypogaea, meaning under the earth.