Peanuts......
The domesticated peanut is an
amphidiploid or
allotetraploid, meaning that it has two sets of chromosomes fromtwo different species. The wild ancestors of the peanut were thought to be
A. duranensis and
A.ipaensis, a view recently confirmed by direct comparison of the peanut's chromosomes with those of several putative ancestors.[sup]
[3][/sup] This domestication might have taken placein Argentina or Bolivia, where the wildest strains grow today. In fact, many
pre-Columbian cultures, such as the
Moche, depicted peanuts in theirart.[sup]
[4][/sup]
Evidence demonstrates that peanuts were
domesticated in prehistoric times in
Peru. Archeologists have (thus far) dated the oldest specimens to about 7,600 years before thepresent.[sup]
[5][/sup] Cultivationspread as far as Mesoamerica where the Spanish conquistadors found the
tlalcacahuatl (
Nahuatl = "cacao", whence
Mexican Spanish,
cacahuate and French, cacahuète) being offered for sale in the marketplace of
Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). The plant was later spread worldwide by European traders.
The legume gained Western popularity when it came to the United States from Africa. It had become popular in Africa after being brought there from
Brazil by the
Portuguese around 1800.[sup][
citationneeded][/sup]
[sup]Oh and BTW late.
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