The peanut plant flowers above ground, then develops its pods underground. Because of this, peanuts are often called groundnuts. Other names include goobers, pinders, arachides (French/Italian), and maní (Spanish). This strange legume yields shell-covered pods (fruits) that contain one or more seeds. A nut is a hard shelled fruit that comes from a plant whose fruit does not open to release its seed. A nut is a composite of the fruit and seed, some examples of true nuts are: acorns, beechnuts, chestnuts and hazelnuts.