The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
Medieval Europeans believed a plant in Central Asia grew lambs as its fruit, which grazed around its stem.
What was reported
From the 14th century, European travel writers, including the author of the fanciful Travels of Sir John Mandeville, described a plant in Tartary, in Central Asia, that bore lambs: small woolly animals joined to the plant by a stalk, which grazed the grass around them until it ran out and both died.
Scholars debated it for centuries, and supposed specimens were shown in collections.
Explanations offered
The legend probably grew from tales of cotton, a plant that produces wool-like fibre, which many Europeans had never seen growing. The 'specimens' were carved from the woolly root of a tree fern, Cibotium barometz, to look like a lamb. Naturalists had debunked it by the 18th century.
- When
- Described from the 1300s
- Where
- The steppes of Central Asia
- Witnesses
- Medieval travel writers
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.