Despite the importance of groundnut cultivation in Spain during the 19th and early 20th centuries very little of this diversity is represented in genebanks and the degree of genetic erosion is extremely high. During the last three years a Spanish collection of groundnuts has been established, mainly from accessions collected on the east coast of Spain and the Balearic islands, the main producing areas at the height of groundnut cultivation. This work presents the results of the characterization of this germplasm. The collection, that included controls obtained from the USDA-NGRP, represented four of the five varietal types described in Spanish literature: 'Collaret', 'Cacahua', 'Moruno' (from Valencia) and 'Palma' (from Balearic Islands). 'Collaret' and 'Cacahua' made up most part of the collection as they can still be found in cultivation in the areas surveyed. The typification of both types coincides with earlier descriptions. A considerable degree of variation was found in pod and seed descriptors. 'Collaret' is characterized by a small pod size, low number of seeds and deep pod constriction. 'Cacahua' is characterized by big pods with slight or almost absent constriction and 3 to 4 seeds per pod. In both types, two subgroups could be identified considering vegetative traits. 'Palma' and 'Moruno' types were originally represented only by USDA controls. The 'Moruno' type was characterized by intermediate pod size and moderate seed constriction. One of the recently collected accessions with an ambiguous local name could be reclassified as this type with a PCA analysis. The 'Palma' type was grouped in the PCA analysis with the 'Collaret' type, suggesting that it could represent an introduction to the Balearic Islands from Valencia. Other accessions of the Balearic Islands corresponded to the 'Cacahua' type and were closely related.
