peanuts

Cultivated peanut arose from a hybrid between two wild species of peanut, The initial domestication may have taken place in northwestern Argentina, or in southeastern Bolivia, where the peanut with the most wild-like features are grown today. Many pre-Columbian cultures, such as the Moche, depicted peanuts in their art. The peanut was later spread worldwide by European traders, and cultivation is now very widespread in tropical and subtropical regions. In the English-speaking world, peanut growing is most important in the United States. Although it was mainly a garden crop for much of the colonial period, it was mostly used as animal feed stock until the 1930's. The US Department of Agriculture initiated a program to encourage agricultural production and human consumption of peanuts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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