By: Selena Lin

Japanese Gardener Yoshiharu Watanabe broke the Guinness World Record for the clover with the most leaves. He beat the previous record by 7 whole leaves with his 63-leaf clover. He achieved this record by using a technique called cross-pollination, which is the transfer of pollen from the anther of one plant to the stigma of another different plant.

According to Yoshiharu, the leaves took a long time to count. He attached tiny labels to the smaller-than-usual leaves when counted. The process of counting may seem simple and easy, but you can not miss a single 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,” Yoshiharu explained to BBC reporters.

To give you an idea of how hard it was for Yoshiharu to grow a clover with so many leaves, let’s take 4-leaf clovers as an example. Some studies say that 1 in 10,000 clovers have four leaves, and 1 in 24,000 clovers have 5 leaves. It would’ve taken a lot of work for Yoshiharu to plant the 20-leaf clover, let alone the 63-leaf clover.

How did Yoshiharu grow a clover with so many leaves? According to the BBC, he started with a clover patch in his garden, and when he found clovers with 4 or more leaves, he would bring them home and add them to his garden. He managed to grow a 20-leaf clover, and that inspired him to take on the challenge of breaking the Guinness World Record for clover leaves. Some of the clovers would pollinate naturally, but he also pollinated some by hand.

Hard work pays off and can create beautiful things that no one has seen before, such as the 63-leaf clover.