| Flowers here, flowers there, Clover field Goes under the plow. In the sky a lark sings. Clover field Goes under the plow.
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| Abridged from "Songs for Children: Something Nice" by Kaneko Misuzu (1903-30), translated by D.P. Dutcher (Jula) |
Kaneko Misuzu wrote poetry for children, and just as Western children make daisy-chains, Japanese country children make necklaces of Chinese milk vetch flowers. But the plant is useful as well as pretty because, being a member of the clover family, it takes nitrogen from the air through its leaves and sends it to the roots, where bacteria convert it into nitrates that fertilize the soil. In England during the Agrarian Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, farmers introduced clover into their planting cycle and the land became much more fertile. The oriental clover pictured above is a Chinese species ( Astragalus sinicus L. ) introduced to Japan during the Muromachi Period (1338-1573) as a medicinal plant to treat liver, kidney and circulation problems. Nowadays it is largely grown as a rotation crop to enrich rice paddies and wheat fields. Its popular name, renge-so, means "lotus weed," which may refer to its attractive pink-purple colors. Unlike the white or purple Western clover, renge-so displays its flowers from mid-April into June in a coronet rather than a dome. Clover belongs to the large legume, or pea, family of plants, which includes vegetables such as beans as well as wisteria and the delicate hagi (bush clover), which flowers in autumn.
