12 October 2008

9 October 2008: Four-leaf clover

Rose Dickson

9 October 2008

1631 – 1709 hours

Outside Collins science building on Willamette University campus, Salem, OR, USA

52 degrees, mostly cloudy

            Sitting outside on the quad I examine the grassy area. Yesterday my friend Tory found a four-leaf clover in this spot and I have made it my goal to do the same. As I search I wonder how four-leaf clovers are created. Is it a mutation from the regular three-leaf clover plant? Or is it a different plant entirely, simply one that is just a more uncommon species? Do all flowers of the same type have the same amount of petals? Why is four-leaf so much higher glorified than three-leaf? I figure it is the rarity that makes this, what seems to be, mutation so desirable. As I search I remain unlucky, no four-leaf clovers in sight.  I remember my friend Tyler Starr telling me about a part of the campus that the four-leaf mutation was extremely common. The longer I search the more I long to find one of these popular specimens. Finally giving up the hunt, I recognize that I will have to explore greater territory if I expect to find my lucky four-leaf clover.

Photo courtesy of:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Four-leaf_clover.jpg


(image would not upload?)

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