The luck of the Irish

For each petal on the sham­rock this brings a wish your way — good health, good luck, and hap­pi­ness for today and every day.

— Tra­di­tional saying

Did you know there is no such thing as a sham­rock plant, at least botan­i­cally speak­ing? There are, how­ever, hun­dreds of vari­eties of clover. Almost any plant that has three clover shaped leaves and green is often called a shamrock.

Pop­u­lar belief is that the Tri­folium repens is the true sham­rock plant, but what you will find in most stores this month is the Oxalis reg­nel­lii. Both fam­i­lies of plants have a wide vari­ety of choices, most are green but there are also pur­ple vari­eties available.

A sur­vey, con­ducted at the National Botanic Gar­dens in Glas­nevin, Dublin, revealed that when the Irish wear the sham­rock, it can be any one of four plants. Three of the plants are clovers, while the fourth is a clover-like plant known as “medick.” All four are in the Pea family;

Lesser tre­foil or hop clover (Tri­folium dubium), White clover (Tri­folium repens), Black medick (Med­icago lupulina) and Red clover (Tri­folium pratense).

Var­i­ous mem­bers of the Wood Sor­rel fam­ily (such as Oxalis reg­nel­lii) are also sold as sham­rocks for St. Patrick’s Day. These clover look-alikes are more eas­ily cul­ti­vated as house­plants than is real clover. The wood sor­rels are not even related to the four plants listed above. One thing the wood sor­rels, Oxalis and Tri­foli­ums, have in com­mon is the tri­fo­li­ate leaf struc­ture, a com­pound leaf with three leaflets.

The com­mon Oxalis plant is easy to care for and should last a while if taken care of prop­erly. The plant can last a long time indoors and can even­tu­ally be moved out­doors after the weather warms up. The plant is suited for zone 8 and 9, so here in cen­tral Ohio it can remain out­doors dur­ing the sum­mer but would need to be brought inside for the win­ter. The plant spreads by rhi­zomes that look like small noo­dles. Often times the plant will appear to be dying when it actu­ally is tak­ing a rest. The Oxalis plant needs some dor­mancy to reju­ve­nate and start grow­ing again. The leaves open and close depend­ing on the light. A bright day will have all the leaves open, and a cloudy day will keep them closed. If you have the plant in a dark room and carry it out into the light, you can watch the leaves open.

So how is the sham­rock asso­ci­ated with St. Patrick’s day? March 17 com­mem­o­rates St. Patrick, most com­monly rec­og­nized as the patron saints of Ire­land, and the arrival of Chris­tian­ity in Ire­land. St. Patrick is said to have used the sham­rock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trin­ity to the pagan Irish, and the wear­ing and dis­play of sham­rocks and shamrock-inspired designs have become a ubiq­ui­tous fea­ture of the day. The term sham­rock is derived from the old Gaelic word “seam­rog,” which means “lit­tle clover.”

The story goes that your best luck will hap­pen if you find a four leaf clover in the clover patch. The next time you are in a field of clover, look down, stare at the clover and a four leaf clover may just show itself for your best luck ever.

Since the 18th cen­tury, the sham­rock has been used as a sym­bol of Ire­land. The sham­rock is used in Irish pubs around the world as the sign of a warm wel­com­ing establishment.

Erin go braugh — happy early St. Patrick’s Day!

Upcom­ing gar­den workshop

Join the Delaware County Mas­ter Gar­den­ers and the Grow and Share Com­mu­nity Gar­den Com­mit­tee, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thurs­day, March 15, for an instruc­tional pro­gram on how to start your veg­etable gar­den. Con­nie Zuga and Norma Lind will walk you through, step by step, on how to start seeds at home. The pro­gram will be held in the com­mu­nity room of the new YMCA at 1121 S. Houk Road, Delaware. This class is part of the Com­mu­nity Gar­den pro­gram series sched­uled for the third Thurs­day of every month. Pro­grams are free of charge and open to the pub­lic. For ques­tions, call Exten­sion office at 740–833-2030.

Susan Liechty is a Delaware County OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gardener.

Posted by Master Gardener on Mar 3 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.