A schoolboy desperately searching for a four-leaf clover fell over on his grandad’s lawn and came face-to-face with something even rarer – a clover with five leaves.

Nine-year-old Tom Kent, from Charing, near Ashford, had been told about the rare four-leaf clover by his paternal grandmother Kay Digby and was determined to find one, so started searching whenever he got the chance.

He was at the home of his paternal grandfather, Jim Waghorn, in Lenham Heath, near Maidstone, when he literally stumbled across the unique plant.

Tom, a pupil at Repton Manor Primary School, said: “My grandma asked me if I’d ever found a four-leaf clover and I said no.

"For a long time I was looking for a four-leaf clover but I never knew there was a five-leaf one.

“I was in my grandad’s garden when I tripped up. I looked down and there was a five-leaf clover. I felt really happy and really excited.”

Mum Katie Kent, who also has three-year-old son James, was at her dad’s house when Tom made his discovery and was pretty impressed.

She said: “Tom came running inside shouting ‘look what I’ve found’. I’d never even seen a four-leaf clover let alone a five-leaf one, I was quite surprised.

“I posted something on Facebook and everyone thought it was amazing. We pressed it straight away under a pile of books and we’re going to preserve it in resin.

“Tom is quite an outdoorsy boy and he used to enjoy gardening with my mum.”

According to superstition, finding a five-leaf clover is supposed to bring luck and wealth.

But if Tom is due a windfall, he won't be getting the cash injection by selling his clover.

He added: “I’m not going to sell it, I want to keep it forever. Mum’s going to put it in some resin and in a frame and then I’m going to show it to my friends at school.”

Clovers with more than the usual three leaves are genetic mutations of the regular plant.

Roughly one in 10,000 clovers has four leaves and, although no official figures exist to demonstrate how rare a five-leaf clover is, some sources say you have just a one in 20,000 chance of finding one.

Each leaf on the clover is said to represent something – the first is for faith, the second for hope, the third for love, the fourth for luck and the fifth for wealth.

Recently, some people have started to believe a sixth leaf represents fame.

The Guinness World Record for the most leaves on a single clover stem stands at 56.

The plant was found by Shigeo Obara of Hanamaki City, Iwate, Japan, on May 10, 2009.