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The four-leaf clover is a rare variation of the common three-leaf
clover Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus ...
. According to traditional sayings, such clovers bring good
luck Luck is the phenomenon and belief that defines the experience of improbable events, especially improbably positive or negative ones. The naturalistic interpretation is that positive and negative events may happen at any time, both due to rand ...
, though it is not clear when or how this idea began. One early mention of "Fower-leafed or purple grasse" is from 1640 and simply says that it was kept in gardens because it was "good for the purples in children or others".


Occurrence

An actual survey of approximately 7 million clovers found the frequency to be about 5000 to 1, twice the commonly stated probability of 10,000 to 1. According to this survey, the frequency of a five-leaf clover is 24,400 to 1, and of a six-leaf clover is 312,500 to 1.
" share the luck; Bern, Switzerland, 2017: "How rare are four-leaf clovers really?"
Even so, this probability has not deterred collectors who have reached records as high as 160,000 four-leaf clovers in a lifetime. The world record for number of four-leaf clovers collected in one hour is 166, set by American Katie Borka on June 23, 2018. Clovers can have more than four leaves. Five-leaf clovers are less commonly found naturally than four-leaf clovers; however, they, too, have been successfully cultivated. Some four-leaf clover collectors, particularly in Ireland, regard the five-leaf clover, known as a rose clover, as a particular prize. The most leaves ever found on a single clover stem (''Trifolium repens L''.) is 56 and was discovered by Shigeo Obara of
Hanamaki, Iwate is a city in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 94,691, and a population density of 100 persons per km², in 37,773 households. The total area of the city is . Hanamaki is famous as the birthplace of Kenji Miy ...
, Japan, on 10 May 2009.


Cause

It is debated whether the fourth leaf is caused genetically or environmentally. Its relative rarity (1 in 5,000 clovers) suggests a possible
recessive gene In genetics, dominance is the phenomenon of one variant (allele) of a gene on a chromosome masking or overriding the effect of a different variant of the same gene on the other copy of the chromosome. The first variant is termed dominant and t ...
appearing at a low frequency. Alternatively, four-leaf clovers could be caused by somatic mutation or a developmental error of environmental causes. They could also be caused by the interaction of several genes that happen to segregate in the individual plant. It is possible all four explanations could apply to individual cases. This means that multiple four-leaf clovers could be found in the same cloverplant. Researchers from the University of Georgia have reported finding the gene that turns ordinary three-leaf clovers into the coveted four-leaf types. Masked by the three-leaf gene and strongly influenced by environmental condition, molecular markers now make it possible to detect the presence of the gene for four-leaves and for breeders to work with it. The results of the study, which also located two other leaf traits in the white-clover genome, were reported in the July/August 2010 edition of ''
Crop Science Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professio ...
'', published by the Crop Science Society of America. The other leaf traits, the red fleck mark and red midrib, a herringbone pattern that streaks down the center of each leaflet in a bold red color, were mapped to nearby locations, resolving a century-old question as to whether these leaf traits were controlled by one gene or two separate genes. White clover has many genes that affect leaf color and shape, and the three in the study were very rare. These traits can be quite attractive, particularly if combined with others, and can turn clover into an ornamental plant for use in flower beds. There are reports of farms in the US which specialize in four-leaf clovers, producing as many as 10,000 a day (to be sealed in plastic as "lucky charms") by introducing a genetically engineered ingredient to the plants to encourage the aberration (there are, however, widely available
cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...
s that regularly produce leaves with multiple leaflets – see below).


Multi-leaved cultivars

There are some cultivars of white clover (''
Trifolium repens ''Trifolium repens'', the white clover, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the bean family Fabaceae (otherwise known as Leguminosae). It is native to Europe, including the British Isles,Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg., E.F. 1968. ''Excursio ...
'') which regularly produce more than three leaflets, including purple-leaved ''T. repens'' "Purpurascens Quadrifolium" and green-leaved ''T. repens'' "Quadrifolium". Some clovers have more spade shape leaves, rather than the usual rounded ones. This may be a genetic mutation. Some genetic mutations in clovers include spade-like shaped leaves or a dotted rusty colour on the leaves. ''Trifolium repens'' "Good Luck" is a cultivar which has three, four, or five green, dark-centered leaflets per leaf.


Other species

Other plants may be mistaken for, or misleadingly sold as, "four-leaf clovers"; for example, '' Oxalis tetraphylla'' is a species of wood sorrel with leaves resembling a four-leaf clover. Other species that have been sold as "four-leaf clovers" include ''
Marsilea quadrifolia ''Marsilea quadrifolia'' is a herbaceous plant found naturally in central and southern Europe, Caucasia, western Siberia, Afghanistan, south-west India, China, Japan, and Vietnam, though it is considered a weed in some parts of the United State ...
''.


As a good luck charm

A description from 1869 says that four-leaf clovers were "gathered at night-time during the full moon by sorceresses, who mixed it with vervain and other ingredients, while young girls in search of a token of perfect happiness made quest of the plant by day". In an 1877 letter to ''St.Nicholas Magazine'', an 11-year-old girl, who wrote, "Did the fairies ever whisper in your ear, that a four-leaf clover brought good luck to the finder?"


Symbolic usage

* Italian automobile maker
Alfa Romeo Alfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis. The company was founded on 24 June 1910, in Milan, Italy. "Alfa" is an acronym of its founding name, "Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili." "A ...
uses a '' quadrifoglio'' (four-leaf clover) icon to delineate its racing cars and performance-oriented road models. This tradition started in the 1923 Targa Florio race, when driver Ugo Sivocci decorated his car with a green clover on a white background. As of 2022, the ''quadrifoglio'' is used on the company's race liveries. * Los Angeles-based space exploration company
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal o ...
includes a four-leaf clover on each space mission embroidered patch as a good luck charm. Inclusion of the clover has become a regular icon on SpaceX's flight patches ever since the company's first successful Falcon 1 rocket launch in 2008, which was the first mission to feature a clover "for luck" on its patch. * Celtic Football Club, an
association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
team from
Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...
, have used the four leaf clover as the club's official badge for over 40 years. * Former Japanese game developer studio
Clover Studio was a Japanese video game development studio founded by Capcom. The studio developed the PlayStation 2 port of ''Viewtiful Joe'', both versions of '' Viewtiful Joe 2'' for the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and the PS2 titles ''Ōkami'' and '' God ...
used a four-leaf clover as their logo. * Several businesses and organisations use a four-leaf clover in their logos to signify Celtic origins. * The global network of youth organizations 4-H uses a green four-leaf clover with a white H on each leaf. * The logo of the New Jersey Lottery features an outline of the state in white on a green four-leaf clover printed on a lottery draw machine ball. * The English-language imageboard
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
features a four-leaf clover in its logo, deriving from the manga character Yotsuba Koiwai's quadruple green pigtails and the similar pronunciation of ''4chan'' and ''fortune''. * Traditional symbol of agrarian parties popularized by Republican Party of Farmers and Peasants, Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, People's Party and International Agrarian Bureau in interwar period. Used until today among others by Polish People's Party, Estonian Centre Party and
Nordic agrarian parties The Nordic agrarian parties, also referred to as Nordic Centre parties, Scandinavian agrarian parties or Agrarian Liberal parties are agrarian political parties that belong to a political tradition particular to the Nordic countries. Positioning t ...
. *In Japan, the Green Cars of
Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...
use a four-leaf clover logo.


Meanings

Some folk traditions assign a different attribute to each leaf of a clover. The leaves have been used by Christians to represent hope, faith, love and luck. Others say that four-leaf clovers granted the power to see fairies, or that they are related to
Saint Patrick Saint Patrick ( la, Patricius; ga, Pádraig ; cy, Padrig) was a fifth-century Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. Known as the "Apostle of Ireland", he is the primary patron saint of Ireland, the other patron saints b ...
's use of the shamrock to explain the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity to the Irish.


See also

*
Fern flower The fern flower is a magic flower in Baltic mythology ( lt, paparčio žiedas, lv, papardes zieds), in Estonian mythology ( et, sõnajalaõis) and in Slavic mythology ( be, папараць-кветка, pl, kwiat paproci, russian: цвет� ...
*
Shamrock A shamrock is a young sprigging, sprig, used as a symbol of Ireland. Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, is said to have Saint Patrick#Patrick uses shamrock in an illustrative parable, used it as a metaphor for the Christian Holy Trinity ...


References

{{Superstitions Trifolium Luck Lucky symbols de:Klee#Das vierblättrige Kleeblatt