Villagers in China are making an arduous journey through the woods to catch a glimpse of the ’stone flower’. They believe that the flower appeared in the woods after a bout of heavy rainfall lashed the mountain until it gave way resulting in a mountain slide.

The flower slowly emerged from the remnants of the mountainside.  According to the forest rangers of the Meilan village, Jinfeng town, the stone flower was discovered by an elderly villager about a month ago when he was collecting firewood deep in the forest.

The village head Ran Zaizhong believes that the ’stone flower’ is a gift from nature and reveals that the township officials will protect the ’stone flower’ and develop the location as a scenic local attraction. The villagers have now built a path through the woods so that people can easily visit the location.

Geologist Dr. Meng Youyan, after studying pictures of the ’stone flower’ said the so-called petals are in fact 300 million-year-old chert nodules.