A potted plant is how we find shamrocks in the U.S., but in Ireland, everyone from news readers to shop clerks pins a sprig on their lapels.
Shamrock is a collective term for what is a kind of Oxalis (pictured), Trifolium or Medicago, which are native to places well outside the Irish boundaries.
The common name might come from the 15th-century herbalist John Gerard, who misheard the Irish word for young clover ("seamrog"). The story that St.
Patrick used the shamrock as a visual aid in explaining the Holy Trinity can be traced back only as far as the early 18th century.
Regardless, today the world is Irish, so enjoy your shamrock, and when it begins to look leggy, wilted and sad, wish it "beannacht" and toss it on the compost heap.
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