Saint Patrick’s Day typically dominates the month of March with its shamrocks, Irish flags, and Leprechauns. In America, we can hardly go outside our homes without seeing Saint Patrick’s iconic plant. It adorns porch banners and store displays with socks, t-shirts, sunglasses, green beer, and even Mardi Gras beads (why?!). (That’s the American commercialized Pot o’ Gold for you!)

Yet, for all the tradition and symbolic meaning imbued into the plant that’s associated with the Luck of the Irish and Saint Patrick’s Day in general, there’s also some confusion.

Shamrock or Clover?

To dispel confusion, it seems necessary to start with the Irish word for the plant. The plant associated with Ireland’s primary patron saint Saint Patrick. is called seamróg (pronounced, pretty much as it looks: Sham-rog). This translates to “Clover,” or more accurately, with the diminutive suffix “-óg,” to “Little Clover” or “Young Clover.” Already, this translation creates confusion. Is the plant for Saint Patrick’s Day the Clover or the Shamrock? What’s the difference between a Clover and a Shamrock? Is there any difference between a Clover and a Shamrock?!

You may be relieved to know that both the Shamrock and Clover are associated with Saint Patrick’s Day. However, the Shamrock and the Clover are not necessarily the same thing.

Oxalis vs Trifolium

Those wishing to be inclusive (and hedge their bets on finding a lucky four-leaf clover) will want to lean toward adopting the generic term: Shamrock. The Shamrock refers to plants in either the scientific genera Oxalis or Trifolium. Plants in the genus Oxalis are commonly known as Wood Sorrels (also spelled Woodsorrels or Wood-Sorrels). Oxalis are not related at all to the common Clover (Trifolium). Some Wood Sorrels naturally produce a fourth leaf in every cluster, while others maintain only three-leaf clusters.

Taking a more narrow view on the legend of Saint Patrick, we’ll want to look to the Clover (genus Trifolium). The Trifolium genus is part of the family Fabaceae which also gives us tasty garden peas. Trifoliums generally produce three-leaf clusters rather than four. The Latin name is literally “Tri” (three) “folium” (foliage, or leaf). The iconic Saint Patrick supposedly, likely apocryphally, compared this three-leaf cluster to the Christian divine trinity. The traditional Irish shamrock used in Dublin is the Trifolium dubium. For these reasons, and for the purposes of this post from hereon out, I’m referring to the scientific genus Trifolium.

Four Leaf Clovers

How Hard is it to Find a Four Leaf Clover?

I’ll bet you’ve sat in a field as a kid, combing through the lawn, hoping you’ll find a four leaf clover. However, four leaf clovers are very rare. Only 1 out of 10,000 leaves of a clover plant will have four leaves. This makes you very lucky to find one! This fourth leaf is due to a rare mutation. The gene, which is recessive, is not necessarily passed down to future generations. So gardeners can’t selectively breed for a Trifolium plant with only four-leaf clusters.

Clovers grow in all kinds of habitats, depending on their varieties. Most prefer full sun and grassland habitats with moderate amounts of moisture like lawns and flower beds. Lawn care companies generally consider clover a weed and may try to charge a pot of gold to get rid of them.

Plants that show the recessive four-leaf trait will also have three-leaf clusters as well as four. They may also bear more than one four-leaf cluster on the same plant. If you find a four leaf clover, keep looking nearby on the same plant, or in neighboring clover plants. Once you’ve already found one four-leaf cluster, the odds of finding another one are higher. Plants with the same recessive gene grow in the same area.

Four Leaf Clover Meanings and Symbols

Four leaf clovers bear the meaning, “Faith, Hope, Love, and Luck.” Luck became the fourth leaf’s meaning due to the difficulty in finding such four-leaf clovers. Synonymous with luck to many, four leaf clovers likewise came to embody fortune and prosperity as well.

What To Do With A Four Leaf Clover?

The typical thing to do with a four leaf clover is to pick it from the plant and press it. Pressing four leaf clovers is easy. Place the clover face down between two blank sheets of acid-free paper. Then place the sandwiched clover in the middle of a heavy book and lay the book flat. Wait a week or two for the moisture to evaporate and the four-leaf clover to dry. The clover becomes flat and, even without additional preservation, will maintain some of its natural coloring for years, even decades.

What do you do with a four leaf clover after pressing it? Answer: Make all sorts of crafts! Some common crafts that use four leaf clovers:

• Laminate the four leaf clover to make a bookmark or carry in a wallet.
• Frame it in a picture frame to hang on a wall.
• Add it to a scrapbook, bullet journal, or junk journal with a little glue.
• Preserve the four leaf clover in resin as a paperweight, an ornament, or (if small enough) a necklace pendant or key chain.

Invasive or Helpfully Introduced? The Case for Clover

Clover has over 300 different species. Many agencies consider clover invasive in parts of the United States. Clover species are native to Europe, Western Asia, and Northwest Africa, but they are relative newcomers to the Americas. As such, clover will take over a lawn, grassy park area, or grassy borders around a parking lot. It easily displaces native grasses with a dense root structure. For more on invasive species, my favorite website is the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS). There’s information not just about the United States, but also for other countries as well.

However, just because clover can be considered invasive to the United States, doesn’t mean that it’s banned. In many states, farmers looking for a cover crop will choose to plant clover in their fields. Clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant, building the soil by binding nitrogen naturally. Rather than leaving a field fallow for a year to fertilize with harsh chemicals, many farmers grow clover instead. As it grows, clover naturally returns nitrogen to the soil that other plants (like corn) has used up. When harvested, the crop becomes feed for livestock. Clover is an excellent pasture feed as most livestock find it sweeter than other grasses and tend to prefer it. If given the choice, the beef cattle on my parents’ property would easily choose clover over grass any day.

Benefits to Bees (and Humans)

Another benefit to growing clover as a cover crop is for the bees. Bees love clover and will flock to the sweet flowers for their nectar. Bees then take this nectar back to their hives and make their honey with it. Companies that provide honey to grocery stores often use honey derived from clover. This is readily apparent in a quick look at the honey labels any grocery store.

Clover is edible to humans even without the processing into honey. All parts of the clover plant is edible for humans, roots, leaves, and flowers. You can eat clovers raw in salads. Or cook them steamed or sauteed so you don’t lose any of the nutrients. Similar to other plants in the legume family, clovers taste a little like peas. If picked early clover can be very sweet.

Caring for Clover

Maybe hoping to cultivate the elusive four leaf clover recessive gene. Growing your own clover plants or as a cover crop, clover an easy plant to care for. Clover plants prefer full sun and a moderate amount of water. While clover isn’t too particular about its growing environment, you’re unlikely to find clover in soil that’s too acidic, however. Clover rarely grows near evergreens or other conifer trees which saturate the soil and lower the pH. Clover seeds require stratification (meaning the seeds germinate best when chilled prior to planting). In spring, clover can take at least 14 days to germinate. Scatter seeds in late winter for a summer cover crop.

Clovers come in a variety of colors. White Clover (Trifolium repens), Red Clover (Trifolium pratense), and the Alsike Clover (Trifolium hybridum) are the most common. These varieties are perennials, but some varieties of clover are annuals. The yellow Lesser Trefoil (Trifolium dubium) and the Crimson Clover (Trifolium incarnatum) are both examples of annual species of clover.

Clover Conclusion

There is so much to this cheerful plant commonly associated with the Irish, green beer, and leprechauns! As you go about your Saint Patrick’s Day, give a little thought to this little plant. If you share these clover facts over a mug of green beer, send a note my way. I’d love to hear it!

Related Reading

There’s a whole host of plants out there in the world. If you’re interested in wild plants (especially if they’re edible!), check out these posts on Purple Dead Nettle and Garlic Mustard for more facts on those wild plants.