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coolrobby2003
01-15-2009, 04:56 PM
Is it possible to grow JUST four-leaf clovers? I have looked several years since we have a lot of clovers in Illinois and never found one! I recently bought a GOOD LUCK charm with a four-leaf clover in it at a local gas-station, but under close inspection i believe it too be FAKE! I would like to grow some because i need all the LUCK IN THE WORLD with my other plants---lol!

Chironex
01-15-2009, 04:59 PM
Good luck!

Bob
01-15-2009, 05:03 PM
If you find one someday maybe Scot can TC them!

damaclese
01-15-2009, 05:09 PM
im 46 years old and have been looking for one all my life i beleav that its a foke tale for if it was really real why hasint any of us found one by now! after having writen that i found this:
Four-leaf clover
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For information on the song, go to Four Leaf Clover (song)


A four-leaf cloverThe four-leaf clover is an uncommon variation of the common, three-leaved, clover. According to tradition, such leaves bring good luck to their finders, especially if found accidentally.[1] According to legend, each leaflet represents something: the first is for hope, the second is for faith, the third is for love, and the fourth is for luck. Another Irish legend tells that the three leaf clover, or "Shamrock", was what Saint Patrick used to represent the Holy Trinity. The name "four-leaf clover" is a misnomer: the clover leaf actually consists of three (or in this case, four) leaflets. Clovers can have more than four leaflets: the most ever recorded is twenty-one[2], a record set in June 2008 by the same man who held the prior record and the current Guinness World Record of eighteen[3] Unofficial claims of discovery have ranged as high as twenty-seven.[2]

It has been estimated that there are approximately 10,000 three-leaf clovers for every four-leaf clover[4], however this probability has not deterred collectors who have reached records as high as 160,000 four-leaf clovers.[5] It is debated whether the fourth leaflet is caused genetically or environmentally. Its relative rarity suggests a possible recessive gene 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.

Certain companies produce four-leaf clovers using different means. Richard Mabey alleges, in Flora Britannica, that there are 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 feeding a secret, genetically-engineered ingredient to the plants to encourage the aberration (there are, however, widely-available cultivars that regularly produce leaves with multiple leaflets – see below) . Mabey also states that children learn that a five-leaved clover is even luckier than a four-leaved one.[6] Five-leaf clovers are less commonly found naturally than four-leaf clovers[7][8], however they have been successfully cultivated[9]

Chironex
01-15-2009, 07:05 PM
If you find one someday maybe Scot can TC them!

Heck, I will even variegate them! :ha:

Java16
01-15-2009, 07:12 PM
Yes, they do exist. Both 4-leaf clovers and 4-leave shamrocks exist My brother and I used to look for them when we were younger and we found lot of them over the years in fields. We even found a five-leaf clover once! It just takes a lot of patience! I believe the world record for number of leaves is something like 12. I am pretty sure that they are just mutated leafs of three-leafed plants, so it is probably not possible to grow them.

damaclese
01-15-2009, 07:59 PM
Java the worlds record is 21 set in 2008

CookieCows
01-15-2009, 08:10 PM
I have have found afew 4 leaf clovers in my lifetime also. I used to search for them growing up. I've taught my grandkids to look for them too. I had one .... I sure hope I still have it .. I need to look for it now that the subject has come up. If I still have it I'll take a picture of it and post it.

Deb

BabyBlue11371
01-16-2009, 12:54 AM
as a young child my great Grandma had clover growing by her back steps.. not sure what she fertilized them with, but us kids were always finding 4 leaf clovers and more.. found a 7 leaf clover once!!! mom stored it in a book and I haven't seen it since.. maybe that is why my luck is so bad?? lost my clover??

here is a 4 leafed oxalis... though it is a tropical..
Oxalis tetraphylla (http://www.bulbsociety.org/GALLERY_OF_THE_WORLDS_BULBS/GRAPHICS/Oxalis/Oxalis_tetraphylla/Oxalis_tetraphylla.html)

PlantFiles: Detailed information on Good Luck Plant, Shamrock Oxalis tetraphylla (http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/56278/)

Gina *BabyBlue*

Taylor
01-16-2009, 01:54 AM
Fake?! I used to find them in our backyard all the time when I was a kid! I never even thought of them as anything special, honestly, because you could have probably found one a day for each day of the summer and have some left over, just from out backyard!

dablo93
01-17-2009, 03:30 AM
Oxalis has always 4 leaf clover
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o28/dablo93/1073838046Oxalisde.jpg

Worm_Farmer
01-18-2009, 05:48 PM
I once found a 4 leaf by accident play football in the back yard. the 4th leaf was small and deformed compaired to the other 3 and the surrond clovers.
So they are real, just rare in nature.

JCDerrick
01-19-2009, 12:31 AM
My mom still has one pressed and protected in a plastic container hanging on the wall in their house - I think she found it as a kid. I've seen a preserved six-leaf clover too. I've only found one four leaf clover during all the years I looked as a kid - my grandparents had a HUGE clover patch we'd go through to see if we could find them. Rare gems indeed.

chrisltropical
01-19-2009, 01:14 AM
When I was a kid I searched for four-leaf clovers in my backyard. I remember finding more than a dozen of them. It was exciting to find the first few. Then I realized they are everywhere...

:bed: