A clover (Shamrock) is a new twig, used as a symbol of Ireland. It is said that Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, used it as a metaphor for the Holy trinity of Christianity. The name Clover comes from Irish seamróg [ˈ ʃamɣɾɣo ː ɡ], which is the diminutive of the Irish word for the plant (SeamAir) and simply means “small plant ” or “new plant “.
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Clover is usually referred to as the dubium type of Trifolium (junior Clover, Irish: SeamAir Bhuí) [3] or Trifolium repens (white clover, Irish: SeamAir Bhán). However, other three-leaf plants — such as Medicago Lupulin, Trifolium pratense, and Oxalis Acetosella — are sometimes called Shamrocks. Clover was traditionally used for its medicinal properties and was a popular motif in Victorian times.
There is still a consensus on the botanical type needs clover which is the “real” clover. John Gerard in his herbal 1597 defined clover as Trifolium pratense or Trifolium pratense Flore Albo, meaning red or white clover. He described the plant in English as “three with leaves of Grasse ” or “Medow trefoile “, “which are called in Irish shamrocks “. Irish botanist Caleb Threlkeld, writing in 1726 in his work titled Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum or a treatise on native Irish plants followed Gerard in the identification of Clover as Trifolium pratense, calling it white field clover.
The situation regarding the Clover identity was further confounded by a London botanist James Ebenezer Bicheno, who proclaimed in a dissertation in 1830 that Royal Clover was Oxalis Acetosella or wooden sorrel. Bichinese falsely alleged that Clover was not a native Irish plant and had only been introduced in Ireland in the mid-seventeenth century, and based its argument on the alike remarks by the Elizabethan authors that Shamrock had been eaten. Bicheno argued that this fit the wooden sorrel better than clover, as the wooden sorrel is often eaten as a green and used to feed the flavor. Bicheno’s argument has not usually been accepted, because the weight of the evidence favors a kind of clover.
