A rare orchid usually only found in China and Japan has been discovered at Longwood Gardens, according to a report from ABC6.

The rare orchid was noticed over the summer by one of the Longwood’s employees, who was taking a walk through a back wooded lot of the gardens. According to Longwood officials, the orchid could have been there for more than a decade without anybody noticing.

The newly discovered orchid is unusual because it has fruit rather than flowers. This is the very first time it has been found in the U.S. due to its specific nutritional needs. Now, experts are working out exactly how the plant is growing and what it is feeding on.

“We think that the seeds may have hitchhiked on the root ball of another plant that we were importing,” said Peter Zale of Longwood Gardens. “When we look at the records, we know a lot of plants were coming from Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s, so the timing matches up.”

Read more about the rare discovery at Longwood Gardens from ABC6 here.

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