Ananova:

Villagers in China are flocking to see a giant stone flower which they believe appeared in the woods after heavy rainfall.

Forestry rangers in Meilan village, Jinfeng town, say an elderly villager found the stone flower a month ago when he was collecting firewood deep in the forest.

And villagers have now built a path through the woods to the site because so many people have come to see it for themselves - even though experts have assured them it's a fossil.

Village head Ran Zaizhong says the site used to be buried by soil and forest until a heavy rain caused a mountain slide and made the stone flower suddenly appear.

“It’s a gift from nature,” said Ran, revealing that township officials are to protect and develop the stone flower as a local scenic attraction.

However, geologist Dr Meng Youyan, who studied pictures of the 'stone flower', says the so-called petals are in fact 300 million-year-old chert nodules.