If we keep looking at the same thing over a period of time with an uncritical, non-curious or distracted mind, attenuation sets in. And not only do our nervous systems tune out what’s commonplace, we also develop a false sense of history. We act as if things always were as they currently appear to be, and as if they will continue to be immune from flux.

Take playing cards as an example. If one was raised in North America and was not in contact with recent Spanish, Moroccan or Italian immigrants, it’s likely that the person has a fixed image of playing cards: 52 cards, 13 in each of four suits: clubs (clover), hearts, spades and diamonds with three of the cards being a king, queen and a jack.

But these familiar cards are just one version, one that originated under the rule of  King Charles VI of France between 1380 and 1422. They continued to evolve a little later in the 15th century into their current forms which are neither unique nor static.  Take a tour of  cafes in Italy and you will see people playing with variations upon the theme of Italian-Spanish cards:  the king is still present, but there is a cavalier and a servant instead of the queen and jack, respectively. And there are only 40 cards with suits of clubs (large sticks), cups, swords and coins. These strike more of a resemblance to the first cards that were imported into Europe by Italian merchants around 1360. They discovered them while trading with Mamluks in Egypt. The cards had the same suits like those of contemporary Spanish and Italian cards, except that they featured a wand instead of a club.  Regional cards in Northeastern Italy still include a wand as a suit.

I often wondered why the word “club” is used for the clover leaf, one of the four suits of French cards. One hypothesis is that the suit was associated with commoners who grew clover alternately with their crops for fodder and in order to enrich the soil. But wooden clubs were also commoners’ weapon of choice, so the name “clubs” stuck to clover.

Clover is a legume whose roots include a mutualistic relationship between bacteria and plant cells.

Thanks to bacterial enzymatic action, valuable nitrogen compounds are made from otherwise unusable nitrogen air molecules. In exchange, the bacteria receive shelter and sugars. Before many people developed the bad habit of adding herbicide to lawn grass, white clover seed  was often mixed with grass seed. Clover, when coexistent, helps grass by adding nitrogen compounds to the soil.

Like playing cards, not all clovers are alike. White clover is adapted to moist conditions. It should not be the only companion of lawn grass. Especially where grass grows on slopes where water drains easily, it makes more sense to grow bird’s foot trefoil. Scientifically known as Lotus corniculatus , it is another leguminous plant which does better in arid conditions and which will help abate dandelions. These unpopular relatives of the lettuce in turn out-compete grass when less water is available. A smaller legume with smaller yellow flowers, black medic, can do well in both moist and more arid soils. And of course there is a common origin to the genera of the bird’s foot (Lotus), to medic (Medicago) and to that of at least 238 Trifolium species, including red and white clover—-we see it in the similarity of leaflet shape, small pea-like flowers and to the all-important and welcome infection in their productive roots.

Their family Leguminosae evolved about 56 million years ago, 9 million years after large dinosaurs went extinct. A few million years later, their most important clades separated. From genetic analyses, it’s been determined that their evolution occurred quickly, reminiscent of  the way playing cards quickly branched out in Europe. And like the latter,  the 18000 species of legumes are now spread all over the planet. They are being used for food, oil, lumber, fiber, medicines, aesthetic purposes and not least of all, for a vital role in the Earth’s nitrogen cycle.

SOURCES:

Lavin, et al. 2004. Evolutionary Rates Analysis of Leguminosae Implicates a Rapid Diversification of Lineages during the Tertiary. Systematic Biology 54 (4): 530-549 http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/4/575.full

The Botanical Garden. Phillips and Rix

The Mediterranean and Mediterranean World. Francois Braudel

The four suits of a pack of cards www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/dec/04/books-advent-calendar-4-four-card-suits

Have you ever wondered why the symbols on playing cards are called…. http://www.brierfieldbridgeclub.org.uk/themes/Have%20you%20ever%20wondered.htm