Vern.: Mung Phali.

Annual, erect or straggling herb, c. 30 cm long. Leaf stipulate, stipule 1.5-4.0 cm long, ciliate. Free part of petiole 1.5-7 cm long; leaflets 4, obovate or elliptic, 1-7 cm long, 0.7-3.2 cm wide, rounded or emarginate and mucronate at the apex, glabrous or sparsely pilose beneath. Flowers solitary axillary, pedicellate; primary bracts ovate-lanceolate, 1-1.4 cm long, 4-5 mm wide, biapiculate; secondary bracts similar but bifid. Hypanthium 2-4 mm long, pubescent. Corolla 0.7-1.3 cm long, yellow with red nerves. Stamens 8-9. Pod 2-6 cm long, 1-1.5 cm wide, gynophore becoming 1-20 cm long. Seed subovoid, 1-2 cm long.

Fl.Per.: July-August.

Type: “Brazil and Peru”; a specimen grown in Hort. Upsala, Linn.909/1 (LINN).

Distribution: Probably originally native of Brazil, very widely cultivated throughout the Tropics.

Groundnut is a very valued crop for dried fruits (seeds) and for oil. Products like groundnut butter etc. are also very popular.