Four-leaf clover

A four-leaf clover is a clover with four leaflets instead of the usual three. Estimates of how rare they are vary, but it is usually said that only about one clover in every 5,000 to 10,000 has four leaves.^[1] Four-leaf clovers are traditionally lucky, which makes them the only form of luck that can be found by crawling around on a lawn for an afternoon.

Why four

The fourth leaflet is caused by a combination of the plant's genes and its environment. Some clover plants carry genes that make extra leaflets more likely, so a plant that has produced one four-leaf clover often produces others. Searchers who find one are therefore advised to keep looking in the same spot.^[2]

Clovers with five, six or more leaves also occur, even more rarely. The record, found in Japan in 2009, is a clover with 56 leaflets, which most people agree is no longer a clover so much as a small shrub with ambitions.

Luck

Each leaf of a four-leaf clover is sometimes said to stand for something: faith, hope, love and luck. The three-leaf clover, called a shamrock in Ireland, is not considered lucky, despite being the one that turns up all the time. The four-leaf clover is therefore lucky mainly because finding it is unlikely, which, statisticians point out, is how luck works.

• Three leaves: normal.
• Four leaves: lucky (1 in 5,000–10,000).
• Five leaves: luckier, presumably.
• 56 leaves: a record, and a bit much.

See also

• Green – its colour
• Number 7 – another number said to be lucky
• List of things that are flat – where a pressed one would go

References

1. Shamrock, S. (2004). One in Ten Thousand. Meadow Press.
2. Leaflet, L. (2010). “Keep Looking in the Same Spot”. Clover Genetics 4: 4.
3. Lawn, L. (1999). An Afternoon on the Grass. Garden Books.