Lidl and B&Q have accidentally been selling plants worth £4,000 for £10

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Supermarket giant Lidl and retailer B&Q have accidentally been selling rare plants worth thousands of pounds at a reduced price.

So if you picked up all sorts of greenery in your local Lidl, B&Q or others, you might be sitting on a fortune.

What supermarkets don't know is that small naturally occurring variations in common plants can make them extremely valuable.

And what's more, these variations are sometimes mistaken for disease and the shops sell the plants at a reduced price.

READ MORE:Sainsbury's issues three-day warning to anybody who shops in its supermarkets

Some of the plants are sold by the shops for around £10 but can sell for a far higher price online, for even just a small part of it like a left or stem.

Of course, there is no guarantee that your local shop will have any rare plants in stock - but it serves as a good reminder to have a look next time you visit.

Here are some of the rare plants you can find:

Perhaps the most common plant to find in any shop, the Monstera Deliciosa is more commonly known as a Swiss Cheese plant because of the holes in its leaves.

And while a regular green plant isn't worth much, a variegated monstera is very rare.

Some of these plants develop white markings on their stems and leaves, occasionally putting out a whole white leaf.

Because the signs can be subtle in young plants, shops often mix them up with the plain variety and sell them for a tenner.

Even a single branch of the plant could end up costing thousands, with Etsy's most expensive listed at £4,562.18.

And as little as a single five-inch stick sells on Facebook Marketplace for £1,399.

Spot the rare beauty by looking for white lines on the stems or a constellation-like pattern on the leaves.

Variegation is all the rage