Vegetable Lamb of Tartary
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| (Scythian Lamb, Borometz, Barometz, Borametz) | |
|---|---|
.jpg) The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary |
|
| Creature | |
| Grouping | Cryptid |
| Sub grouping | Plant |
| Data | |
| First reported | 11th Century |
| Region | Central Asia |
| Habitat | Forests |
| Status | Myth based on fact |
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Latin: Agnus scythicus or Planta Tartarica Barometz[1]) is a legendary plant of central Asia, believed to grow sheep as its fruit.[2] The sheep were connected to the plant by an umbilical cord and grazed the land around the plant. When all the plants were gone, both the plant and sheep died.
Although it owed its currency in medieval thought as a way of explaining the existence of cotton, underlying the myth is a real plant, Cibotium barometz, a fern of the genus Cibotium.[2] It was known under various other names including the Scythian Lamb, the Borometz, Barometz and Borametz, the latter three being different spellings of the local word for lamb. [3] This plant produces a woolly mass supported by a number of stems.[2] The Tradescant Museum of Garden History has one under glass.
[edit] Cultural references
A plant called Borometz is mentioned in Chapter 22 of Simplicius Simplicissimus, a picaresque novel by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, when the protagonist describes his abduction by Tartars.
The Borometz appears in Jorge Luis Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings.
The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary appears on the album cover of Guided by Voices' Vampire on Titus.
In the PlayStation 2 game Odin Sphere, Baromett seeds can be planted and grow to be plants that bear two sheep.
In the science fiction novel Evolution by Stephen Baxter, plants called "borametz trees" by the author have developed a symbiotic relationship with the semi-sentient descendants of humanity that nest within their fiber-filled seedpods. They provide food, shelter and protection to their tenants, who in return tend to the trees and seek out water, minerals and other crucial substances on the barren plains of Pangaea Ultima.
[edit] References
- ^ These are not scientific names, but predate binomial nomenclature.
- ^ a b c Large, Mark F.; John E. Braggins (2004). Tree Ferns [ILLUSTRATED]. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, Incorporated. p. 360. ISBN 978-0881926309.
- ^ Ashton, John. Curious Creatures in Zoology, 1890
[edit] External links
- Legend of the Lamb-Plant
- Vegetable Lamb at pantheon.org
- Note to Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.28
