Question

The edible part of groundnut is buried in the soil and morphologically it is a
A. Root
B. Stem
C. Fruit
D. Leaf

Answer 1

Morphologically peanut has five parts to be studied. It is an annual plant which grows about 30 to 50 cm tall, as it is a legume, so it belongs to the ‘Fabaceae’ which is commonly called as ‘Leguminosae’ and bean or pea family. Peanuts allows symbiotic nitrogen fixing bacteria in their root nodules like most of the legumes.

Complete answer:
The leaves of peanut are opposite and pinnate with four leaflets, like other legumes its leaves are nyctinastic which means they have specialized sleep movements in onset of the darkness. The flowers are yellowish orange with red veining of about 1 to 1.5cm they are in axillary clusters on the stem which is above the ground and is only for one day. The ovary is located at the base of the flower which appears to be a flower stem. Peanut pods are developed underground by geocarpy. They (pods) are 3 to 7cm long and contain one to four seeds. Mature peanut includes hard outer shell, cotyledons the main inner edible part or fruit, seed coat is a fine paper like covering over the cotyledons then comes radicle root of embryo at the base of the cotyledons which is snapped off and lastly comes plumule shoot of embryo coming from top of the radicle. By discussing this we have concluded that root, stem and leaf are not the edible part of the peanut only fruit or cotyledons are meant to be for eating.

Thus the correct option is (C) Fruit.

Note: Pinnate is the arrangement of leaves arising from a common axis just opposite to each other or we can say it is a feather like arrangement of leaves. Whereas ‘geocarpy’ is the rare type of plant reproduction in which plants produce diaspores within the soil, it has evolved as an effective method which ensures the suitable environment for the growth.