Plant of the Week
Shamrock
Latin: Oxalis regnellii
As a kid growing up in what looks like a German-Protestant enclave in
central Oklahoma, I never quite understood St. Patrick's day. Sure, I not only
was pinched but managed to bestow a few pinches on those unlucky classmates
failing to abide the "wearing of the green" rule. But still, the significance of
the day escaped me.
That a religious holiday – what St. Patrick's day is at its heart, despite
all the beer drinking and revelry – should have a plant associated with it is
not surprising. That the plant sold as the "shamrock" is really from South
America and not Ireland may take a bit of explanation.
Shamrock is a tender pot-plant that grows from an underground rhizome that
looks like a zipper. The three lobed green leaves are borne aloft on slender
petioles about 6 inches long. The individual leaflets are triangular.
The name shamrock is derived from the Celtic word for clover, which also has
three leaflets. St. Patrick is said to have used the shamrock to illustrate the
principle of the trinity to the people he converted. It's unclear if the
shamrock St. Patrick used was the Irish clover, Trifolium repens, or the
native wood sorrel, Oxalis acetosella.
The flowers of O. regnellii appear in greatest abundance in the spring
and sporadically throughout the growing season. Flowers are an inch long, white,
five-petaled trumpets borne in
a loose terminal cluster that tend to flop about. This species is native to
Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay, and it seems to have been cultivated in this
country since the 1930's.
St. Patrick, born in Britain as Maewyn Succat in 387 AD and fathered by a
Roman officer, was sent to Ireland in 432 as a missionary to convert the masses
to Christianity. His most famous legend, that he drove the snakes from Ireland,
is really a metaphor for driving the Druids, the shaman and magicians of the
Celts from the Green Isle. He died in 461 on March 8 or March 9.
Because no agreement could be reached on which day he died, the holiday is
celebrated on the 17th of March, the sum of 8 and 9. The first St.
Patrick's day was celebrated in the U.S. in Boston in 1737. Thanks to the Irish
potato famine of the 1840's, we have more people of Irish descent in the U.S.
than in Ireland.
The use of O. regnellii is an American convention foisted upon the
horticulturally uninitiated by the greenhouse industry. The plant is ideal for
the holiday because it has the tripartite leaves, is green and is showy in a
6-inch pot. That the plant comes from the wrong continent is a bit of geographic
formality that need not concern the average holiday celebrant.
The shamrock is easy to grow as a houseplant. Give it bright, indirect light.
Allow the soil to dry slightly before rewatering. Fertilize with a houseplant
fertilizer during the summer months and, if possible, relocate the plant to a
shaded patio for a summer vacation out-of-doors. The foliage will usually die
down late in the fall, at which time the pot should be allowed to dry down.
Begin watering in early February to force the plant back into growth. Watch for
spider mites, its most troublesome foe.
Snakes don't seem to bother it, so I guess it's magic still holds.
By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist
- Ornamentals
Extension News -
March 16, 2001
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