By: Amy Qian

When a 45-year-old gardener from Nasushiobara in Japan found a 63-leaf clover, he broke the Guinness World Record for the clover with the most leaves. The record surpassed the previous record by seven leaves. If four-leaf clovers can bring good luck, is he the luckiest man ever?

It took a long time to count the leaves of the clover. Yoshiharu’s method was to put tiny labels on each leaf. He said, “Because the leaves are smaller than the original clover, it took me over an hour to count them all.”

Yoshiharu used a skill called cross-pollination to grow this award-winning plant. The Japanese gardener started from a clover patch in his garden. When he saw a clover with four or more leaves, he would add it to his garden. He attracted pollinators such as bees and butterflies to grow clovers along with him. Plants make pollen, which pollinators pick up when they sip nectar from flowers. The pollen goes from one plant to the next as the pollinators pollinate the plants. Pollen can spread by wind, too.

Normal clovers have three leaves. The four-leaf style has been called a lucky charm. Some studies state that one in every 10,000 clovers is four-leaved. Others state that one in every 5,000 clovers is four-leaved. It’s even rarer to discover a five-leaved clover. Studies report one out of 24,000 clovers is five-leaved.

If you could do one thing that would break a world record, what would it be?