A Chinese news broadcast team aired a highly elaborate description and close up shots of a sex toy while presenting the inanimate object as "a strange plant." The news clip has gone viral online.

ABC reports that villagers from the rural community of Liucunbu outside Xi'an City had called a local news station after spotting what they thought was a very strange plant -- something no one had seen in the past.

"Even the village elder, who is above 80 years old, has not seen such a plant before," Yunfeng Ye reported in Chinese, with subtitles by germinc.

The clip of the Chinese news with English subtitles is now going viral online. The news anchor begins:

"Today, we received a call from a village telling us that after digging a hundred metres, they found a strange plant."

The reporter and villagers measure the object and determine it is 19cm in length. Ye points out that the "herb" grows underground, so it is rarely seen.

A Chinese news broadcast team aired a highly elaborate description and close up shots of a sex toy while presenting the inanimate object as a strange plant.

Ye also refers to "online sources" before saying that the object is called "taishu," also known as "meat lingzhi." She notes that such plant is hard to be discovered by humans, but it has "many stories online."

Having learned that the “strange plant” is in fact a sex toy for men, the Xi’an City’s Channel 2 issued an apology on its page at the Sina Weibo blogging network.

The report ends with Ye saying the villagers will talk to a botanist to learn more about the "plant."

While the villagers and the reporter did not recognize the sex toy, the viewers who knew exactly what it was had called the network's attention to report the error.

"I own a sex toy shop and this thing is exactly like the artificial vaginas I sell every day," the Mirror quoted a viewer on Tianya.cn.

Having learned that the "strange plant" is in fact a sex toy for men, the Xi'an City's Channel 2 issued an apology on its page at the Sina Weibo blogging network.

"Our program last night made everyone laugh," the news station wrote, adding, "We apologize for discomfort and misdirection brought to the audience because our reporters are young and unfamiliar with worldly affairs."