Editing Shamrock (section)

== Botanical species ==
[[File:Trifolium dubium kz1.jpg|thumb|''[[Trifolium dubium]]'']]
There is still not a consensus over the precise [[Botany|botanical]] species of clover that is the "true" shamrock. [[John Gerard]] in his herbal of 1597 defined the shamrock as ''Trifolium pratense'' or ''Trifolium pratense flore albo'', meaning red or white clover. He described the plant in English as "Three leaved grasse" or "Medow Trefoile", "which are called in Irish ''Shamrockes''".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gerard |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/mobot31753000817749/page/1017/mode/1up?q=treffle |title=The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes |year=1597 |location=London |pages=1017–1018 |language=en}}</ref> The Irish botanist [[Caleb Threlkeld]], writing in 1726 in his work entitled ''Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum'' or ''A Treatise on Native Irish Plants'' followed Gerard in identifying the shamrock as ''Trifolium pratense'', calling it White Field Clover.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Threlkeld |first=Caleb |url=https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_synopsis-stirpium-hibern_threlkeld-caleb_1727/page/n185/mode/1up |title=Synopsis stirpium Hibernicarum alphabeticae dispositarum |year=1726 |location=Dublin |page=186 |language=en}}</ref>

The botanist [[Carl Linnaeus]] in his 1737 work ''[[Flora Lapponica]]'' identifies the shamrock as ''Trifolium pratense'', mentioning it by name as ''Chambroch'', with the following curious remark: "{{lang|la|Hiberni suo Chambroch, quod est Trifolium pratense purpureum, aluntur, celeres & promtissimi roburis}}" ('The Irish call it shamrock, which is purple field clover, and which they eat to make them speedy and of nimble strength').<ref>{{cite book |last=Linnæi |first=Caroli |author-link=Carl Linnaeus |title=Flora Lapponica, exhibens plantas per Lapponiam crescentes, secundum systema sexuale, collectas in itinere impensis Soc. reg. scient. Upsaliensis, anno 1732 instituto |publisher=B White et Filiorum |date=1737 |location=London |pages=229–230 |url=https://archive.org/stream/b28775235#page/230/mode/1up/search/Hiberni }}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Nelson|1991|p=34}}</ref>
[[File:Shamrock plant in bloom.jpg|thumb|left|This flowering Shamrock is a South American species of wood sorrel {{lang|la|[[Oxalis regnellii]]}}.]] 
Linnaeus based his information that the Irish ate shamrock on the comments of English Elizabethan authors such as [[Edmund Spenser]] who remarked that the shamrock used to be eaten by the Irish, especially in times of hardship and famine. It has since been argued however, that the Elizabethans were confused by the similarity between the Irish (Gaelic) name for young clover {{lang|ga|seamróg}}, and the name for [[wood sorrel]] {{lang|ga|seamsóg}}.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kelly |first=Fergus |url=https://archive.org/details/earlyirishfarmin0000kell/page/310/mode/2up?q=shamrock |title=Early Irish farming |publisher=Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |year=1997 |isbn=1-85500-180-2 |location=Dublin |page=311 |language=en}}</ref>

The situation regarding the identity of the shamrock was further confused by a London botanist [[James Ebenezer Bicheno]], who proclaimed in a dissertation in 1830 that the real shamrock was ''Oxalis acetosella'', a species of wood sorrel.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofroyalin01roya#page/452/mode/2up |title=On the Plant Intended by the Shamrock of Ireland |first=James E. |last=Bicheno |author-link=James Ebenezer Bicheno |journal=Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain |volume=1 |pages=453–458 |via=Internet Archive |date=May 1831 }}</ref> Bichino falsely claimed that clover was not a native Irish plant and had only been introduced into Ireland in the middle of the 17th century, and based his argument on the same comments by Elizabethan authors that shamrock had been eaten. Bicheno argued that this fitted the wood sorrel better than clover, as wood sorrel was often eaten as a green and used to flavour food. Bicheno's argument has not been generally accepted however, as the weight of evidence favours a species of clover.

A more scientific approach was taken by English botanists [[James Britten]] and Robert Holland, who stated in their ''Dictionary of English Plant Names'' published in 1878, that their investigations had revealed that ''Trifolium dubium'' was the species sold most frequently in [[Covent Garden]] as shamrock on [[Saint Patrick's Day|St. Patrick's Day]], and that it was worn in at least 13 counties in Ireland.<ref>{{cite dictionary |url=https://archive.org/stream/adictionaryengl01hollgoog#page/n456/mode/1up |title=Shamrock |first1=James |last1=Britten |author1-link=James Britten |first2=Robert |last2=Holland |dictionary=A dictionary of English plant-names |pages=425–427 |via=Internet Archive |year=1886 }}</ref>

[[File:Trifolium repens Leaf April 2, 2010.jpg|thumb|''[[Trifolium repens]]'']]
Finally, detailed investigations to settle the matter were carried out in two separate botanical surveys in Ireland, one in 1893<ref>{{cite journal |last=Colgan |first=Nathaniel |year=1892 |title=The Shamrock: an attempt to fix its species |journal=[[The Irish Naturalist]] |volume=1 |issue=5 |pages=95–97 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/22170#page/111/mode/1up |access-date=14 January 2018 |archive-date=10 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810004133/http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/22170#page/111/mode/1up |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Colgan |first=Nathaniel |year=1893 |title=The Shamrock: a further attempt to fix its species |journal=[[The Irish Naturalist]] |volume=2 |issue=8 |pages=207–211 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/30126#page/233/mode/1up |access-date=14 January 2018 |archive-date=30 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170430165006/http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/30126#page/233/mode/1up |url-status=live }}</ref> and the other in 1988.<ref>{{harvp|Nelson|1991|pp=86–90, 139–144, 153}}</ref> The 1893 survey was carried out by [[Nathaniel Colgan]], an amateur naturalist working as a clerk in Dublin; while the 1988 survey was carried out by [[E. Charles Nelson]], Director of the [[National Botanic Gardens (Ireland)|Irish National Botanic Gardens]]. Both surveys involved asking people from all across Ireland to send in examples of shamrock, which were then planted and allowed to flower, so that their botanical species could be identified. The results of both surveys were very similar, showing that the conception of the shamrock in Ireland had changed little in almost a hundred years. The results of the surveys are shown in the table below.

[[File:MedicagoLupulina02.jpg|thumb|''[[Medicago lupulina]]'']]

{| class="wikitable"
|+Shamrock survey
|-
! rowspan="2"|Botanical name
! rowspan="2"|Common name
! colspan="2"|Percentage
|-
| 1893
| 1988
|-
| ''[[Trifolium dubium]]''
| Lesser clover
| 51%
| 46%
|-
| ''[[Trifolium repens]]''
| White clover
| 34%
| 35%
|-
| ''[[Trifolium pratense]]''
| Red clover
| 6%
| 4%
|-
| ''[[Medicago lupulina]]''
| Black medick
| 6%
| 7%
|-
|''[[Oxalis acetosella]]''
|Wood sorrel
| _
|3%
|-
| colspan="2"|Various ''[[Trifolium]]'' spp., ''[[Oxalis]]'' spp.
|3%
|5%
|}

The results show that there is no one "true" species of shamrock, but that ''Trifolium dubium'' (lesser clover) is considered to be the shamrock by roughly half of Irish people, and ''Trifolium repens'' (white clover) by another third, with the remaining sixth split between ''Trifolium pratense'' (red clover), ''Medicago lupulina'' (black medick), ''Oxalis acetosella'' (wood sorrel), and various other species of ''Trifolium'' and ''Oxalis''. None of the species in the survey are unique to Ireland, and all are common European species, so there is no botanical basis for the belief that the shamrock is a unique species of plant that only grows in Ireland.