Not very often. Like most everything else, plant exploration and collecting is a lot of slogging through fields and forests, up mountainsides and through streams that have no bridges. The payoff comes when the scientist finds a species that hasn’t been identified by humans before, or, even better, a species that has the characteristics that will help breed a better crop — a rice with more protein, a wheat that can withstand drought, a maize that won’t topple over in a strong wind.

But every once in a while, plant collecting hits the jackpot. That’s what happened with a tall, skinny plant known as Zea diploperennis. Click here to read its story.

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