Subject: Re:Shamrock

From: Frank Goodridge <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 95 09:42:46 -0700

>[email-masked] (Troy S Nies) wrote:
>
>>My wife and I are having a hard time find what the scientific name and, 
>>habitat,growing instructions, etc. are for Shamrocks.  We would like the 
>>true shamrocks from Ireland (small ones) and also the North American 
>>version you can get in greenhouses.
>
>There has long been debate as to just what the "true" shamrock is.
>Some say it's the least hop clover, Trifolium dubium. Others say it is
>the white wood-sorrel, Oxalis acetosella. A half dozen other plants in
>Europe and North America have been called shamrocks.
>
>--Jack Sanders, Ridgefield, Conn.
>

'The Englishman's Flora' Geoffrey Grigson (1958) is very thorough on 
common/latin names.  He identifies T.dubium as the Irish Shamrock, 
deriving its name as 'seamrog' -little clover or cloverlet.  He also 
comments:

"There has always been arguement, rather pointlessly, about the identity 
of shamrock.....  It was a clover first and foremost.... though in a free 
world there is nothing to stop you picking the triple leaf of wood-sorrel 
and calling it shamrock, and using it as if it were."

But I'll still insist on my students using latin names first :-)
-- 
Frank Goodridge         Internet: [email-masked]
Bolton Institute             Tel: 01204 528851
Deane Road
Bolton
LANCASHIRE
BL3  5AB
UK

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 1995 10:42:33 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Frank Goodridge <[email-masked]> writes:
> deriving its name as 'seamrog' -little clover or cloverlet. ...
> 

A couple evenings ago our whole family was crawling in our backyard in 
search of a four-leaved (white)clover.. In half an hour we found 2 five leaved 
clovers, and 3 four-leaved clovers. Two of which were growing on the opposite 
sides of the same "stem". No two-leaved ones were identified..

A couple of weeks ago, at my in-laws we were much more succesful. Between
rows of Black currant bushes I and my four-year old daugther found in less than
10 minutes more than twenty 4 leaved clovers, about the same number of 
5 leaved clovers, a dozen 6 leaved ones, a couple of 7 leaved ones and 1 
eight leaved one. These multileaved variations were obviously abundant.
In this case insecticides used for the black-currant may have caused the 
extra leave growth.

Now to my questions. Can the sensitivity to grow 4 leaflets be hereditery ? 
Do other clover species grow 4 leaflet leaves as commonly as white clover ?
Is there any other way to simulate growth of 4 leaflet versions other than 
insecticides?

Regards
Harry J Lehto
Kaarina, Finland