Why are four leaf clovers so rare?

Question

Please give as much detail as you can. Thanks.

Answer 1

You can buy and grow your own 4 leaf clover here:
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/fourleafclover/index.html;jsessionid=73C4B5404C3CF2EEB28EFCF9993C424D

Clover is a member of the pea family and some species are used by farmers to fertilize the soil.

When you find a normal three leaf clover, the three leaves are actually one leaf with three parts. This kind of leaf is called a segmented leaf. So, a four leaf clover has leaves with four parts instead of three.

According to Dr. Michael Vincent, who is a clover expert at Miami University, four leaf clovers aren't so rare after all. In fact, he has found hundreds of four-leaf clovers -- and even five-, six- and seven-leaf clovers on his lawn every year.

"The higher numbers of leaflets may occur if a young clover leaf is physically damaged, or exposed to certain chemicals. Or there can be genetic mutations in clover to cause multiple leaflets." http://www.earthsky.com/1996/es960317.html

The answer to your question about seeds of four leaf clover plants is a bit complicated. Firstly, damaging parent plants physically or with chemicals will not result in seeds that produce an abnormal number of leaflets.

However, if the quality of having four leaflets is in the genetic code of the parent plants (there has been a mutation), then the seeds of the plants will produce offspring with the same number of leaflets. Since I do not know the details about how leaflet number is determined genetically, I cannot say what would happen if a four-leaf clover was crossed with a normal three leaf clover.

Answer 2

Why are four-leaf clovers so hard to find? You need more than luck to find a four-leaf clover -- you need a mix-up on the clover's part, too.

Clover, like all living things, is made up of different kinds of cells. Each cell has its own special job. Some cells store food; others absorb water. Cells get their individual orders from DNA, a special chemical inside every cell.

DNA works a lot like an instruction manual -- it tells cells how to make the proteins they need to do their specific jobs. DNA also replicates itself to transmit the genetic characteristics from parents to offspring. (DNA is the reason why children have features that are similar to their parents!)

So what does DNA have to do with lucky clovers? The clover plant sprouts from a seed by cell division. One cell divides to become two identical cells; two divide to become four and so on. Each time a cell gets ready to divide, it copies its DNA so that the two new cells will have the same instructions.

During copying, the DNA message can get jumbled or damaged. In the case of four-leaf clovers, the cell that gets the bad directions is one of the plant's first leaf cells. Not knowing it has the wrong instructions, the plant keeps dividing. Eventually, the clover grows into that lucky fourth leaf!

Answer 3

there is not any clover that has 4 leaves. Shamrocks do have, witch is interior the clover relatives. it rather is have been the announcing of a 4 leaf clover got here from. What you got here across have been all Shamrocks.

Answer 4

They are simply a mutation that in a field of three-leaved clovers might be hard to find BUT if you cultivated merely the four-leaved clovers you would get more of them. It wouldn't be so unusual then

Answer 5

well if you have heard about genetic mutations or alterations this is the precise answer from my side. just like you find some humans with extra fingers on hands or feet due to genetic mutations occured while in mother's womb during the process of gene's modification that is, when genes are started to be alloted their specific functions then some chromosomes(on which genes are imbibed) are unable to undergo normal process and the genes present on them undergo mutation to create new and abnormal features. just like that plants also undergo same process regarding this problem but the gene code is different as compared to humans probably not known to me as yet.

Answer 6

they are a hybreed and a mutation of a three leaf clover.

Answer 7

It is a genetic mutation. They are not really all that rare. I have found one w/o really looking before. I am sure that if I tried I could find more.

Answer 8

because it is actually a defect in the clover, they were only meant to have 3 leaves....that is why you hardly ever see them and they are considered lucky

Answer 9

Because the fourth leaf is deformation.

I don't know exactly but I think so.

Answer 10

Cause they bring a lot of luck and it is hard to find.