By: Amelia Xiao

The white clover is native to Europe but is also most frequently found on lawns or as a wild plant. Most often, it is seen to have three leaves and a white-pinkish flower, but rarer four-leafed ones have been deemed as a lucky charm.

Finding a four-leaf clover is extremely rare, studies state that 1 in every 5,000-10,000 clovers is four-leafed. Amazingly, a Japanese gardener, Yoshiharu Watanabe, 45, managed to plant and care for a 63-leaf clover. He beat the previous 15-year standing world record by seven leaves! Is it an extra lucky clover? Yoshiharu said it took a long, long time to count all the leaves on the record-breaking clover. To ensure he counted correctly, tiny labels were put on each leaf.

“Because the leaves are smaller than the standard clover that you know and love, it’s hard to count the number of leaves. When I counted this record-breaking clover, it took me over an hour,” he explained

Watanabe says that whenever he spotted a four-leaved, five-leaved, or seven-leafed clover, he would take it back home and let the plants naturally pollinate. Upon finding a 20-leaf clover in his garden, he began thinking that he could have an opportunity to achieve a world record. Mr Watanabe used selective breeding for the clovers and hand-pollinated them.