Why This Plant With Only 4 Leaves Just Sold For Rs 4 Lakh

With Rs 4 lakh, you could buy a car or fund a nice vacation... or you could get a houseplant. In New Zealand, a tiny plant with just four leaves has sold for NZ$ 8,150 - or over Rs 4 lakh. The rare variegated rhaphidophora tetrasperma, also known as Philodendron Minima, has yellow variegation on each of its four leaves. 

According to Ladbible, its unique colouring sparked a bidding war on New Zealand's biggest trading site, Trade Me. The winner of the bidding war walked away with the rare plant - poorer by NZ$ 8,150. 

"This plant has currently has 4 leaves with stunning yellow variegation on every leaf!" the seller wrote on Trade Me while sharing pics of the rare houseplant. You can view photos of the green and yellow plant here.

Variegated plants are both rarer and slower to grow than the non-variegated plants, explains Stuff New Zealand. They rarely occur naturally and are highly sought-after by horticulturalists and collectors. 

"It's the green in the leaves that lets plants photosynthesise. The less green, the less surface area they have to produce the sugars they need for growth and repair," said NZ Gardener editor Jo McCarroll to the news website.

"A few variegated leaves on a fully green stem does not guarantee that future growth will be variegated.

"But I assume that the person spending that amount of money would know enough about plants to know that. They're probably planning to propagate and sell future plants to make money."

The anonymous buyer told Radio New Zealand that he acquired the plant for "a tropical paradise."

"It's actually three of us, we are part of a group," he said. "We're building a tropical paradise, it will be a bird and butterfly house with a fully-enclosed restaurant in the middle of a tropical garden, and we want to have the best rare collection of tropical plants in New Zealand inside of there.

"This facility that we're building is going to be one of a kind in New Zealand and probably one of a kind in most parts of the world."