'Super Lucky' Framingham Boy Makes Rare Botanical Find

FRAMINGHAM, MA — It's too bad he's not old enough to play the lottery.

A 6-year-old Framingham boy recently made a rare plant discovery when he found a five-leaf clover during an excursion with friends in his backyard. Braden Tafuri and his two neighbor friends spent had spent several hours on May 23 searching for four-leaf clovers after hearing from an adult about how rare they are — and how they're a source of good luck.

The trio found six four-leaf clovers. But then Braden happened upon the extra-rare five-leaf variety.

"It's super lucky," he said this week, reflecting on his discovery.

How rare? According to the website Share the Luck, which is run by two Swedish clover enthusiasts, about one in 24,400 clovers features five leaves. The couple claims to have looked at 5.7 million clovers to figure out the odds of finding the different varieties.

"Apparently we have a lucky lawn," dad Rob Tafuri said.

After finding the five-leaf clover, Braden ran to show his mom. Rob Tafuri has placed the plant in a book to dry out. They plan to laminate it, perhaps so Braden can wear it as a lucky charm. It's also possible the item will travel with Braden to his first grade class at Hemenway Elementary School this fall.

(That is, if school returns — but Braden is working on that problem, too. He says he wants to grow up to be a scientist to discover a cure for the coronavirus.)

Braden isn't planning to let poor odds stop him from going one step further. He's an outdoorsy kid — his favorite show is "Naked and Afraid" — and he plans to scour the Earth for his next big find: a six-leaf clover, which occurs in about one in ever 312,000 plants, according to those Swedish researchers.

"I'll keep looking," he said.