Peanuts, to me, have one of the weirdest methods of producing a seed that I have ever heard of.
Since they are harvested from the ground, you might wonder if they are some kind of root vegetable.
On the other hand, the peanut looks exactly like a seed, inside its husk, and new plants can be grown from them (but the same can happen from some roots (potatoes, carrot parts, etc.)).
However, seeds come from flowers. You need a flower. I have seen underwater flowers, but never heardof an underground one (self-fertilizing?).
They also don't have the normal anatomical connection to the plant, typical of a root vegetable. They don't grow out of the roots as some kind of enlargement, and connect to the rest of the plant that way. They grow for like little branches that grow from the air into the ground!
So what is going on here?
Ask de Google:
from here:
View attachment 284125
They flower above ground and then grow the developing seed into the ground. The developing seeds down, inside a thin tube that grows out and extends underground.
Seeds develop there (underground) as peanuts.
Wikipedia on peanuts here.
It would be interesting to know what their adaptive advantage might have been in adapting this way of doing things.
The picture shows a short plant, as grown on farms. They may, in nature, just vine along on the ground, inserting seeds into different areas (and environments) as it goes. Could be seen as a seed distribution mechanism (often selected for).
