Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!bionet!ames!haven!ncifcrf!toms
From: toms@ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Biology of Four Leaf Clover ??
Keywords: clover genetics
Message-ID: <1080@fcs280s.ncifcrf.gov>
Date: 7 Jul 89 00:53:29 GMT
References: <2324@aecom.yu.edu>
Organization: NCI Supercomputer Center, Frederick, MD
Lines: 27

In article <2324@aecom.yu.edu> werner@aecom.yu.edu (Craig Werner) writes:
>	Today I found a 4 leaf clover while walking off a softball field.
>While this is the fifth four leaf clover I have ever seen in my lifetime,
>this is the first one that I have ever found on my own (as opposed to
>someone who I was with first noticing it).  
>	Being a biologist (but not a botanist), certain questions came to
>mind after the initial mystique wore off.  Is the tendency to four-leaf'ness
>genetically controlled?  Does it breed true, and if so is it dominant or
>recessive? Or is the extra leaf a developmental rarity, not reflected in
>the genetic makeup of the plant?
>	        Craig Werner   (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go)
>	     werner@aecom.YU.EDU -- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
>              (1935-14E Eastchester Rd., Bronx NY 10461, 212-931-2517)

A friend of mine has the knack of finding lots of 4 leaf clovers.  When we were
at Cape May a few weeks ago she suddenly reached down to pluck a 4 leaf
clover.  So I looked in the place she had found it, and found a 5 leaf one!  I
uprooted the plant, took it home and treated it nicely.  So far it has been
producing 3 leaf clovers ...  darn!  :-)

Finding 4 leaf clovers seems to be more a matter of being prepared for the
observation than luck, since then I have found several more (and so has she).
  Tom Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
  Frederick, Maryland  21701-1013
  toms@ncifcrf.gov