Richmond Kid, 12, Discovers Rare 5-leaf Clover

It’s rare enough to find a four-leaf clover, but one young Richmondite went one better – literally.

Twelve-year-old Evan Lam managed to find a five-leaf clover in the field next to his school, St. Paul, about a month before classes let out for the summer.

“At first I thought it was a four-leaf, and when I looked at it closely, I was like, ‘Oh wow! It’s a five-leaf clover!’” Lam told the Richmond News via email.

Lam reached out to the News to share his story after reading about nine-year-old Dov Harel’s lucky four-leaf find on the Railway Greenway.

He flattened the five-leaf clover under his water bottle for safe-keeping until he could get home, then let it dry for a few days in between a pad of sticky notes before laminating it.

Statistical analysis website Minitab says the odds of finding a four-leaf clover on the first try are 10,000 to one, while the odds of finding a five-leaf clover on the first try are one million to one. Five-leaf clovers are also meant to bring more luck and financial success to the finder than a four-leaf.

While Lam said he felt he was lucky to find the five-leaf clover, he doesn’t think four-leafs are that hard to find.

The St. Paul student said he stumbled across a four-leaf clover last year as he was running back into school after recess, and found another this year during outdoor science class, although a leaf got ripped off of that one.

Lam found yet another four-leaf clover – which he also had laminated – while playing spike ball at school.

“I knelt down and looked at the ground at a few patches of clovers and I found it a few weeks before I found the five-leaf. I found them in the same area.”

He added his sister has also found a couple of four-leafs as well as his mom.

“So they’re not that hard to find, just find a field with clovers and look around in the patches and eventually you’ll find one in about an hour or two,” he said. “If not, well, just find another field.”