High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Arachis is a genus of about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the pea family (Fabaceae), native to South America. At least one species, the peanut (Arachis hypogaea), is a major food crop species of global importance; some of the other species are cultivated for food to a small extent in South America. Other species such as A. pintoi are cultivated worldwide as forage and soil conditioner plants, with the leaves providing high-protein feed for grazing livestock and a nitrogen source in agroforestry and permaculture systems.