22nd May: Clover

The French Revolutionary calendar celebrates Clover today. Here are a few things you might not know about clover.

1. There are about 300 different species of clover. They are plants in the genus Trifolium, which comes from the Latin for three leaves. The genus is part of the leguminous Pea family Fabaceae.
2. While gardeners might not like to see clover growing in their pristine Lawns, farmers actively cultivate it alongside grass crops. It's abundant, and makes good, nutritious food for livestock. Clover fixes nitrogen, too, reducing the need for fertilizers. Bees like it too, and clover is one of the main sources of nectar for Honey Bees.
3. People can eat clover, too, particularly the flower heads, which were traditionally prescribed for eczema and psoriasis. made into syrup or Tea, they are used to treat coughs.
4. The shamrock, the symbol of Ireland, is basically clover. The word derives from the Irish for "young clover". For a long time there was debate about which species of clover shamrock was. In the end, a survey was carried out by the Irish National Botanic Gardens. The survey asked people from all over Ireland to send in plants they believed to be shamrock so that the botanists could figure out which species was shamrock. About half the respondents sent in examples of Trifolium dubium or Lesser Clover, and a third sent in Trifolium repens or White Clover, with the remainder divided among several other species, such as Trifolium pratense, Medicago lupulina, Oxalis acetosella. The conclusion was that there is no distinct species of shamrock and it is not unique to Ireland, as all the species sent in grow elsewhere, too.
5. Clover typically has three leaflets, hence St Patrick using it to explain the Holy Trinity. However, one in about ten thousand clovers have four leaflets. The fourth leaf is often smaller and of a different shade than the other three. Five and six leaf clovers also occur but are much rarer. The clover with the most leaflets ever found had 56 and was discovered in 2009 by the same person who'd held the previous records by finding 18 and 21 leafed clovers. Scientists think multiple leafed clovers are a mutation which may be influenced by environmental factors, so lucky and/or record breaking clovers are likely to occur several times on the same plant. Four leafed clover collecting is a thing, with some collectors finding as many as 160,000.
6. Four leafed clovers are traditionally symbols of good luck. The leaflets all represent something: the first is for faith, the second is for hope, the third is for love, and the fourth is for luck. Should you find a five leafed clover, the fifth leaf stands for Money. There is no meaning assigned to the sixth leaf and above. If you find a four leafed clover and immediately give it to someone else, your luck will double.
7. Abraham Lincoln used to carry a four-leaf clover with him everywhere for good luck - but on the night of his assassination, he had forgotten it.
8. Children in the Middle Ages believed they could see Fairies if they carried a four-leaf clover.
9. As well as the Irish shamrock, clover has been adopted as a symbol by other places and sports teams. Red clover is the state flower of Vermont. Four leafed clovers appear on the badge of Glasgow's Celtic Football Club, and Italian car maker Alfa Romeo used to paint a four-leaf clover on the side of their racing cars, after one of their drivers, Ugo Sivocci, painted one on his car for luck in 1923.
10. SpaceX's first successful rocket launch in 2008 had used a four leafed clover on its mission patch for luck. Now every SpaceX mission patch features one.

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