Peanut Growth and Development: From Fertilization to Mature Pod

Due to its importance as a food as well as an oilseed crop around the world, peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an economic crop in world agriculture. It is unique among the major food crops with an interesting reproductive biology of above ground flowers and underground pod production. This feature led to a thorough study of the process of fertilization, embryo growth, seed and pod development to understand peanut growth and development. Peanut displays large morphological variation for plant, pod and seed features with a wide range of adaptations to many different ecological conditions. This genetic variation is valuable to researchers for peanut improvement.