Is this a rare find or a common shamrock?
Four-leaf clovers are rare in a garden since most clovers just have a trifecta of leaves.
How Rare Is a Four-Leaf Clover?
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Four-leaf clovers are a variation on the common three-leaf white clover (Trifolium repens).
According to experts, the probability of finding one is 1 in 5,000 or 1 in 10,000.
The origin of four-leaf clovers bringing good luck stems from ancient Celtic, or Druid, priests.
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They elevated the rarer four-leaf clovers to the status of good luck charms that warded against evil spirits.
Locate a fluffy, dense patch of clovers and start checking around the edge of the area.
Plus, the lucky plant has a different-looking center.
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Let your eyes move quickly and dont get caught up focusing on just a small portion of the patch.
What is unclear is what plant he might have been holding.
Historically, a shamrock looks like a clover with three leaves.
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Or pick up some of its cousins in theOxalisgenus.
Is Clover Beneficial to Lawns?
Surprisingly, the lucky clover is often considered merely acommon lawn weedto be killed.
Lesser trefoilMantonature / Getty Images
For the superstitious, if you make a wish over a four-leaf clover your wish will come true.
Since four-leaf clovers are associated with luck, your wish should be of the good-fortune variety.
They can be added to salads or boiled to make tea.
White cloverStefan Rotter / Getty Images
The science and secrets of four-leaf clovers.
Most leaves on a clover.
Nelson, Ernest Charles.Shamrock: Botany and History of an Irish Myth.
Black medickWhiteway / Getty Images
Boethius Press, 1991.
Wisconsin Shamrocks.University Of Wisconsin Green Bay.
Hadden, Evelyn.Beautiful No-Mow Yards: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives.Timber Press, 2012.
Red cloverweisschr / Getty Images
Agriculture and Air Quality.United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Miller, G.Lawns.North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook, edited by K.A.
Bradley, NC State Extension, 2018.
