Finding a four-leaf clover, luck and legends

It's rare and it's said to hold hope, faith, love and luck. Small wonder that the author is thrilled to have spotted one in her city!

I felt quite thrilled as I found these leaves of Four-leaf Clover, and clicked them on February 5, 2018. Why the thrill?

Here is the entry about Four-leaf Clover. Amongst other things, it says:

The four-leaf clover is a rare variation of the common three-leaf clover. According to tradition, such clovers bring good luck,though it is not clear when or how that tradition got started.

The first reference to luck might be from an 11-year-old girl, who wrote in an 1877 letter to St. Nicholas Magazine, “Did the fairies ever whisper in your ear, that a four-leaf clover brought good luck to the finder?”

It is claimed that there are approximately 10,000 three-leaf clovers for every four-leaf clover, in the wild, However, an actual survey of over 5 million clovers found the real frequency to be closer to 1 in 5000.

Other plants may be mistaken for, or misleadingly sold as, “four-leaf clovers”; for example, Oxalis tetraphylla is a species of wood sorrel with leaves resembling a four-leaf clover.

Some folk traditions assign a different attribute to each leaf of a clover. The first leaf represents hope, the second stands for faith, the third is for love and the fourth leaf brings luck to the finder.

What I photographed might even be the wood sorrel. But since no one seems to be able to tell the difference…I am considering myself lucky!

Comments:

  1. Ramaswamy G S says:

    Yes. You are surely lucky, being able to run lots of programs in parallel. Whereas able, capable ones are just seeing ur pix and commenting and cribbing that they could not go.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

Pollution and indiscriminate development threaten Madambakkam Lake’s survival

Real estate expansion near Chennai's Madambakkam Lake is threatening the ecosystem and increasing flood risks, putting local livelihoods in jeopardy

Lakshmipathi, a small-scale dairy farmer, has lived in Madambakkam for over 25 years. "Madambakkam’s name originates from cows, but the common grazing grounds around the lake have disappeared over time. Now, if we let the cattle roam the streets, corporation officials will impound them. It costs us ₹2,600 every time we retrieve them," he says. A government cattle grazing poromboke land converted into the urban forest near Madambakkam Lake. Pic: Shobana Radhakrishnan Cattle rearing is a vital livelihood for many in Madambakkam. "The area is home to around 3,000 cattle. The Madambakkam Lake and its surrounding land have historically served…

Similar Story

Bengaluru’s trees must be preserved by its people: K Sankara Rao

In this video interview, the author of 'Trees of Bangalore' discusses the city's rich biodiversity and the need to conserve it.

“I have always been fascinated by trees. This long journey of documenting Bengaluru’s trees was addictive. The more I documented them, the more I wanted to do it,” remarked K Sankara Rao, author of Trees of Bangalore. Rao, a former professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc.), has a long and varied experience in the field of Plant Biology with profound reverence and love for nature. Published in two volumes, Trees of Bangalore is a one-time documentation depicting the rich ecology of Bengaluru and works as a road map for policymakers to preserve this richness. Read…