A favorite flower, clover, mentioned in the Qur'an

Surah 80: 26-32

Then We cleave the earth, cleaving (it) asunder,
Then We cause to grow therein the grain,
And grapes and clover,
And the olive and the palm,
And thick gardens,
And fruits and herbage,
A provision for you and your cattle.


***
Is it not a wonder that the humble clover is mentioned as one of the illustrious gifts by God? Everyone thinks of the value of grapes, of the olive, and the palm, but there is the clover, singled out for glorious mention at God's lips in the Qur'an. Why is that? Well, God explains a few lines later, where he demonstrates that his gifts are for both human sustenance and their cattle.

Everyone who knows anything about cattle knows that cows love clover. They eagerly seek it out and eat it. Clover has a small red and white round flower, which is small, usually a half inch in diameter. Here is a close up picture.

http://www.nps.gov/wica/naturescience/wildflowers-red-clover.htm

When I was a child I lived in a rural area, and so we children grew up knowing that the clover flower tastes sweet and how to eat them when one is on a trek through the meadows and woods.

As you can see the clover is hundreds of tiny elongated petals, where one half is red or purple and the other half, which attaches to the stalk, shades to white. If you pull a bunch of the petals and bite off the bottom half, the white half, it is full of sugar and very sweet to eat. I would often eat several of them as a youngster, and to this day think of it when I see some nice ones (although we do not live in such clean times these days, so I would not recommend it! Too many dog walkers and so forth.) But I thought I would share this little farm knowledge from my childhood.