Four Leaves for Luck

Dad always said the four-leaf clovers called to him and let him know where they were.  And, he would follow that statement up by providing evidence and presenting one of these little pieces of luck - seemingly almost on demand.  Visiting in the great-grandparents and walking around in their yard, he'd almost casually say, "Oh, there's one!"  And then pluck it and hand it off to whomever he was with.

The gesture was typically well-received.  And, of course, I always liked getting a four-leaf, as did my siblings.  I suspect each of us might still find a pressed four leaf clover in some of our older books once in a while.

I remember spending a couple of days hunting in our back yard with my sister, looking for the elusive four-leaf clover.  Eventually we started finding four, five, six and even seven-leaf clovers amongst the white clover in the lawn.  I don't know if they started talking to Julie or not, but I found that I must have inherited a bit of Dad's abilities.  I can still walk from here to there at the farm and catch a four-leaf out of the corner of my eye - even if I am carrying things and my mind is on my work.

Tammy has not been able to move around the farm much since the Achilles tendon surgery so I felt as if a little bit of luck should be brought to her, since I couldn't just hand it to her as we walked down one of our paths.  So, this one has been sitting on the kitchen counter for a few days.  It's holding very well in its glass of water.

I have read different places that the odds of any particular white clover stem has a 1 in 5000 to a 1 in 10,000 chance of having four leaves.  That probably makes it seem close to impossible that a person will have any hope of finding one.  In fact, I know many people who don't quite believe that I can find these little pieces of luck quite so easily.  But, in addition to the one sitting in the glass in the kitchen, I could walk you to a couple of spots on our farm and pick you ten to twenty more specimens.  I even know where a five-leaf clover is sitting and collecting chlorophyll.  

But, let's first consider how many stems are in a single patch.  These folks did a little bit of citizen science and calculated that you only need a 12.5 square foot patch to get to 10,000.  They discovered something I already knew - clover patches have several layers of stems.  The biggest leaved stems are at the top and there is an amazing number of smaller, developing leaves closer to the soil.

It turns out that four-leaf clovers appear when a combination of genetics and conditions occur.  The article cited with the link in the prior sentence suggests that there might be more tendency to throw out stems with four leaves in the warmer months.  Apparently a study determined that white clover with more than three leaves seemed to be linked to warmer climes, with clover in high tunnels being more likely to have four (or more) leaves.

The other thing I have noticed is that clovers throwing more than three leaves tend to occur in patches, something the articles I link to also mention.  If we remember that a clover plant has multiple stems, it would make sense that if a plant is expressing a gene for four leaves, then it will probably have more than one stem showing that trait.

And maybe now you can understand how I was able to harvest enough four leaf clovers one season to give each of our 120 CSA members a piece of clover luck.

After all, they told me they were there - and they volunteered.