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STANDARDS
CCSS: 6.EE.A.2.C, 7.EE.B.3, MP1, MP6
TEKS: 6.3D, 6.7D, 7.3A, 7.3B
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Shamrocks!
Matt Anderson Photography/Getty Images (Background); iStockPhoto/Getty Images (glasses)
Shamrocks and St. Patrick’s Day go hand in hand. But ask someone from Ireland to bring you a shamrock, and you could receive at least five different plants! A survey by Irish botanists showed this confusion over Ireland’s national symbol in 1893 . . . and again in 1988.
But whether you’re talking about lesser clover, white clover, red clover, black medick, or common wood sorrel, the three-leafed green plant we use to decorate on St. Patrick’s Day has been Ireland’s national symbol for more than 250 years. It has been associated with Ireland’s patron saint, Saint Patrick, for 100 years longer than that!
Read on to learn more about shamrocks. Then plug in the numbers to solve the equation below and reveal a final fact.
1/5,000
David Malan/Getty Images
Probability of a shamrock having an extra fourth leaf—making it lucky!
2
Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo (left); Jolanta Dabrowska/Alamy (right)
Number of clover species most often called “shamrock.” They’re Trifolium dubium (lesser clover, left) and Trifolium repens (white clover, right).
60,000,000
Courtesy of McDonald’s
Approximate number of Shamrock Shakes that McDonald’s sold between the treat’s introduction in 1970 and its 50th anniversary in 2020.
1675
Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
The year Saint Patrick was first depicted on a coin holding a shamrock. It’s now known as a St. Patrick’s copper!
Kyodo/Newscom (right)