Herb Of The Month - Clover / Shamrock - The Real 'Shamrock '

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http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

 

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This page is part of an Irish genealogy web site 'From Ireland' ©Dr.

Jane Lyons, Dublin, Ireland.

 

http://www.from-ireland.net

 

The real 'Shamrock'

 

The true Irish Shamrock, as identified by Nathaniel Colgan c. 1893 is a

clover. It is not one of any or many clovers, it is one species,

collected from a majority of counties at that time and with the

exception of a very few plants, the majority were Trifolium repens or a

form of this plant - White clover also known as Dutch Clover

 

A few years ago, when I was in the United States, I made enquiries of

the old lady whose house I was staying in as to the name of a plant she

had, and I was told in no uncertain terms that it was a Shamrock - and

she wondered how I could claim to be Irish if I didn't know what it

was!! :-) The plant I saw was in no way anything like what we call

Shamrock and even here, I notice differences in what is being sold as

Shamrock from one place to another - so, the day I found this particular

paper in the Irish Naturalist, I was delighted. I have found photographs

and taxonomic descriptions of three of these four plants. The fourth

plant mentioned Trifolium minus, " a species listed here that should

'share the honour equally' with Trifolium repens " - has been

re-classified, and is now considered to be a form of Trifolium repens

 

Many say that there is no true shamrock, it is simply a species of

clover and can be any one of a number of different species- there are

web sites that do say that Trifolium repens is the Irish Shamrock, but

rarely is the person who came to this conclusion mentioned. Those sites

that do name Nathaniel Colgan as the botanist, tend to give the

impression that there are still other plants that fall into a general

category of 'Shamrock'

 

Nathaniel Colgan collected plants from many Irish counties (not all), he

did receive specimens from the Gaeltacht areas - those places that he

considered that the people would produce the plant that was most likely

the original 'shamrock' and because " the Irish-speaking districts of our

island, where old national usages may be assumed to have the greatest

tenacity of existence........... " and so, the conclusions drawn by

Nathaniel Colgan on the basis of his work, given the time period this

was carried out in should really be taken as evidence that there is one

true shamrock. Trifolium repens and that Trifolium minus, considered at

one time to be a separate species is really a form of Trifolium repens,

that is to say the same plant, with some very minor differences, that do

not accord it the distinction of a different species.

 

Nathaniel Colgans paper " The

<http://www.from-ireland.net/history/nathist/shamrock.htm#realshamrock>

Shamrock : A Further attempt to fix its species " Irish Naturalist, 1893

 

Shamrock <http://www.from-ireland.net/ballads/stpatday/stpatsindex.htm>

& St.Patrick's Day ballads or poetry

 

A taxonomic description for those who may not be familiar with the word

is a description of the parts or bits of a plant or animal that help us

to distinguish between it and another similar plant or animal. These

differences may be minute and hard to recognise unless you are familiar

with the structure of any plant or animal.

 

Trifolium repens L. - Description

<http://www.from-ireland.net/history/nathist/shamrock.htm#rep> with

photos

 

Trifolium pratense L.- Description

<http://www.from-ireland.net/history/nathist/shamrock.htm#pra> with

photos

 

Medicago lupulina - Description

<http://www.from-ireland.net/history/nathist/shamrock.htm#lup> with

photos

 

1830's Historical <http://www.pasthomes.com/index.php?aid=83>

/Genealogical Maps of Ireland

 

The Shamrock : A Further attempt to fix its species

 

by Nathaniel Colgan

 

published in the Irish Naturalist 1893

 

photographs and descriptions are an addition

 

On the approach of last Saint Patrick's Day I was induced, chiefly by

the kind offer of assistance made me by the editors of this Journal, to

take in hands once more the inquiry into the species of our national

badge, begun some years earlier, with the results detailed in the issue

for last August. A notice to rs was accordingly inserted in the

March number of this year, so framed as to ensure that all specimens

sent in response should be certified as genuine by competent

authorities, while, at the same time, as a provision against a not

improbable lack of interest in the subject amongst the rs to

the Irish Naturalist, some three dozens of circulars were prepared and

sent by post to selected points in the Irish-speaking districts, chiefly

along our western sea-board. These circulars, in almost all instances,

were addressed to Roman Catholic parish clergymen; and, as I had fully

expected, the percentage of replies they brought me was very much larger

than in the case of the printed notice. Of the circulars, twenty per

cent were answered, a proportion not far short of expectation. As for

the printed notice distributed through the agency of the Irish

Naturalist, I cannot presume to say exactly how small the percentage of

answers may have been. Out of the whole body of rs, however,

only eight forwarded specimens of Shamrocks; but, of these, one sent no

less than five, another, four, and a third, three specimens, each

certified as genuine by a distinct authority.

 

List of names of those who sent plants

 

In addition to the plants thus secured, Mr. F. W. Burbidge, Director of

Trinity College Botanic Garden, supplied me with a root, certified by

one of his gardeners, a Tipperary man, as the real Shamrock, and part of

the stock grown in the Gardens, and supplied as such to English

inquirers; another specimen was bought from an advertiser in the Co.

Louth, who offered the plant for sale, at a not unprofitable price, " as

the true Irish variety, " and, finally, three specimens were bought in

Dublin on the 17th March as real Shamrock, from three different

itinerant vendors, each of whom was required to exercise the most

scrupulous care in the selection of the genuine plant from the obviously

miscellaneous collection in her basket. (These three plants matured into

three distinct species, Medicago lupulina, Trifolium repens and

Trifolium minus)

 

Altogether, thirty-five Shamrocks -were secured and carefully planted

and labelled, after they had been provisionally classified according to

species. A study of the minuter distinctions of Trifolium repens,

Trifolium minus and Medicago lupulina, made it possible to carry out the

classification with confidence even in the undeveloped stage in which

most of the specimens reached me: In no single instance, indeed, in

which the plant survived up to the flowering and fruiting season, (and

only two out of the total of thirty-five succumbed to the extraordinary

dryness of the remarkable spring and early summer of this year), was

this provisional classification found in error; so that my Patrick's Day

determination of these two as T. repens and T. minus, respectively, may

be accepted as accurate. Of the surviving thirty-three plants, all had

flowered and many had fruited by the 23rd June, T. minus in all cases

keeping well ahead of T. repens. By the end of June the entire crop of

Shamrocks, or, at least, specimens of the thirty-three plants of which

it was made up, was harvested and garnered, that is to say, dried,

mounted, and labelled, for the satisfaction of obstinate adherents of

Trifolium repens.

 

The results of this harvest may be most clearly shown thus :-

19 Shamrocks matured into Trifolium repens.

12 Shamrocks matured into Trifolium minus.

2 Shamrocks matured into Trifolium pratense.

2 Shamrocks matured into Medicago lepulina.

 

It will be seen that the results of this year's inquiry shows, contrary

to my expectation, a decided preponderance in favour of T. repens. But

if we add in the results of the former inquiry , the balance between the

two species is almost redressed.

 

Out of a total of forty-nine certified Shamrocks grown on the two

occasions, twenty-four proved to be Trifolium repens, and twenty-one

Trifolium minus, the remainder being equally divided between Trifolium

pratense and Medicago lupulina. Arranging the Shamrocks by counties so

as to exhibit the area over which :the use of the different species was

found to prevail, we have the following:-

 

Trifolium repens is used in:

Armagh ; Carlow ; Cork ; Derry ; Dublin ; Galway ; Waterford ; Wicklow ;

Antrim ; Tyrone ; Kerry ; Donegal ; Meath ; Sligo ; Roscommon and Mayo

 

1830's Historical <http://www.pasthomes.com/index.php?aid=83>

/Genealogical Maps of Ireland

 

Trifolium minus is used in:

Armagh ; Carlow ; Cork ; Derry ; Dublin ; Galway ; Waterford ; Wicklow ;

Clare ; Louth ; Tipperary ; Queen's C., (Laois) and Waterford

 

Trifolium pratense is used in:

Waterford & Wicklow

 

Medicago lupulina is used in

Cork and Dublin

 

 

Here again the employment of T. repens as the national badge would

appear to be more extended than that of T. minus, the former being used

in sixteen, the latter only in thirteen of the Irish counties. But there

is further evidence forthcoming on the side of T. minus; for Mr. James

Britten, editor of the Journal of Botany, gives the following strong

testimony in its favour, in a valuable note on the Shamrock in the

Dictionary of English. Plant Names (p. 425). (Published by Trubner &

Co., (for the English Dialect Society), London, 1886.)

 

" At the present day(1886), Trifolium minus is the plant most in repute

as the true Shamrock; it is this species which forms most of the

Shamrock sold in Covent Garden on St. Patrick's Day, and in Ireland it

is used as such in the counties of Antrim, Down, Meath, Fermanagh,

Dublin, Wicklow, Carlow, Westme1ith, Wexford, Limerick, Waterford, Cork,

and Kerry. "

 

When entering on this inquiry some five years ago, I was quite unaware

of the existence of this interesting contribution to the subject, which

only came under my notice so late as the April of this year. Had I known

of these previous researches. by which the results recorded in these

pages were so largely anticipated, I should probably have thought it

unnecessary to make further investigation, so that my ignorance of Mr.

Britten's paper has had the result of strengthening the case for

Trifolium minus, which, as I believe, he was the first to make out.

Though Mr. Britten does not tell us that Trifolium minus is exclusively

used as the Shamrock in the thirteen counties covered by his inquiry,

the evidence he has brought forward, coupled with that given in these

pages, fully warrants, in my opinion, the conclusion that Trifolium

repens can no longer claim pre-eminence as the true Irish Shamrock.' It

must hereafter be content to share the honour, at least evenly, with its

rival Trifolium minus. Future writers and editors of English and Irish

Floras, if they aim at accuracy in their popular plant-names, must

bracket these two species of Trifolium under the name Shamrock and must

give, too, to Mr. Britten the credit of having been the first to clearly

discern and boldly advocate the strong claims of Trifolium minus.

 

While conceding that in the present day the neater Trifolium minus is

equally in favour with Trifolium repens as our national badge, some may

be disposed to argue that the true Shamrock of earlier times, before

modern culture had spread abroad a taste for the elegant and the

delicate, was, nevertheless, the coarser Trifolium repens. The fact that

a decided majority of the specimens collected by me from the

Irish-speaking districts of our island, where old national usages may be

assumed to have the greatest tenacity of existence, belonged to this

latter species, might be taken as lending a certain support to this

view. But the discussion of such antiquarian aspects of the question,

how-ever fascinating it might be as opening up wide fields of

speculation and inquiry, cannot properly find a place in the pages of a

natural history Journal. I must content myself, then, with this

endeavour to place clearly before those interested in the subject the

available evidence as to the species of the modern Shamrock, leaving it

to others, who may feel dissatisfied with the mass and tendency of this

evidence, to pursue the inquiry still further on the lines laid down.

 

 

Authors Notes:

Page 208: Contributers of 'Shamrock'I wish to express my thanks here to

the following correspondents for their kindness in sending specimens

from their respective districts:- Rev.T. O'Connor, Kilrosanty,

Waterford(three plants); Rev;T. McGrath, Clogheen, Tipperary; Rev. P.

MacPhilpin, Aranmore, Galway bay; Rev. P. Brennan, Corrigaholt,Clare;

Rev. P. O'Keane, Easky, Sligo; Rev. P. Kelly, Ardara, Donegal (two

plants); Mr. Michael Costello, Inisheer, Galway bay (two plants); Miss

A. N.Abbott, Cork (three plants); Mrs. Delap, Valencia island, Kerry;

Miss Garner, Dublin; Miss Rinahan, Dublin (plant from Ramelton,

Donegal); Mrs. Leebody, Londonderry(four plants from counties Donegal,

Derry, and Tyrone); Mr. A. J. Collins, Belfast; Mr. M. Comerford,

Dundalk; Mr.T. Hunter, Ovoca, Wicklow(five plants); Mr. Owen Smith,

Meath; and Mr. J, J. Wolfe, Skibbereen, Cork.

 

Page 209: In the earlier stages of growth, the mucro to the leaflets of

Medicago lupulina seems to me to afford the safest and readiest

distinction between that species and T. minus and T. repens. There is

little difficulty at any. stage in separating T. pratense from the three

other competitors.

 

Page 210: All who are interested in the obscure history of the Shamrock

are strongly recommended to read Mr. Britten's note, which gives in

condensed form, the fruit of much antiquarian research

 

Page 211 There is no reason why the name should not be written

'shamroge', as it

is pronounced by Irishmen, and written by many of the earlier English

writers.

 

Taken together, Mr. Britten's inquiry and my own have covered

twenty-five out of thirty-two Irish counties. The following counties

still remain outside the inquiry:-Cavan, Kildare, Kilkenny, King's

County, Leitrim, Longford, and Monaghan.

 

 

 

Trifolium repens L.

 

White clover, Dutch clover.

Fabáceae (Papilionáceae) - Pea family.

 

Leaves: Trifoliate and long-stalked; leaflets very narrow oval to oval,

very finely toothed, up to 4 cm long, rounded or somewhat incised,

smooth and sometimes with a white mark in the middle.

 

Inflorescense: Racemose heads 15-20 mm across with many flowers.

 

Flowers: With distinct stems ; 5 fused sepals, covered thickly with

hairs, lightly coloured in the lower part and mid to dark green at the

long teeth, often with a reddish overlay ; calyx tube has gren veins ; 5

petals, white to pale reddish, 6-12 mm long, fused to form two narrow

wings, a keel and a standard swelling outwards a little ; 10 stamens,

superior ovary 2 carpels.

 

Fruits: Pods

 

Perrennials with creeping stems rooting at the nodes; flowering until

September.

 

 

 

Trifolium pratense L.

 

Red Clover

Fabáceae (Papilionáceae) Pea Famiy

 

Leaves: Ternate, on stems ; leaflets oval, blunt ended, round, rather

pointed or shallowly notched at tips, usually entire, often with lighter

green, whitish or reddish markings, somewhat hairy and up to 3 cm. long.

 

Inflorescence: Egg-shaped or spherical raceme, solitary or in small

groupsat ends of stem or branches

 

Flowers: 5 fused sepals, whitish-green and rather hairy, with thread

like greenish points: 5 red petals 5 times as long as the calyx tube

(10-15mmlong); standard significantly longer than wings or keel: 10

stamens ; superior ovary ; fertilised by insects.

 

Fruit: Pods

 

Usually perennial with upright stems; flowering from May to October

 

Medicago lupulina L

 

Black Medick

Fabáceae (Papilionáceae) Pea Family

 

Leaves: The 3 leavelets are oval or rhomboid, finely toothed, especially

in the upper part, with scattered close hairs and blunt-ended or rather

flat ; topmost leaflet has a stalk and is often rather larger than the

latreal ones.

 

Inflorescence: Spherical racemes on stems growing in axils of stem

leaves.

 

Flowers: On short stems ; 5 sepals, green with narrow pointed tips ; 5

petals forming standard, 2 wings and keel, yellow, up to 3.5mm long and

dropping off after flowering ; 10 stamens, the top filament being free ;

superior ovary.

 

Fruits: Kidney or sickle-shaped.

 

Annuals or short-lived perennials, flowering from May to September.