trifolum

  Just as each state in the U.S. has its official bird or flower, shamrocks have come to be the symbol of Ireland. According to legend, St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, used the three-leaves of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the fourth century A.D. But what exactly is a shamrock? The word itself comes from the Gaelic seamrog, or “little clover,” and was used as early as the 1500s. So it’s a clover, yes, but which one? There are actually about 300 species in the clover genus Trifolium, or trefoil, and according to botanists, no one throughout history has ever definitively determined the exact plant the shamrock is meant to be. It is, essentially, a man made creation. “The ‘shamrock’ is a mythical plant, a symbol, something that exists as an idea, shape and color rather than a scientific species,” states an article in Smithsonian magazine, “No One Really Knows What a Shamrock Is,” by Bess Lovejoy (March 16, 2015). Throughout history, botanists have put forth many theories from wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), to yellow clover (Trifolium minus), white clover (Trifolum repens), and black medic (Medicago lupulina). According to the Smithsonian, in the late 18oos, amateur botanist Nathaniel Colgan “asked correspondents in 11 Irish counties to collect, around the time of St. Patrick’s Day, samples of shamrocks they considered to be the real deal.” He then repeated the study the following year. Out of a total of 35 plants ...