The Barbary lamb

[vukxfiles]

Tales of these odd creatures harken back from ancient Hebrew and Greek legends, but it wasn't until it was discovered by the academics and explorers of the Middle Ages that these animals truly came to prominence. Described as being small, naked, lamb-like creatures - which were entrapped in gourd-like shells - these ani-plants were a renowned delicacy in the middle eastern diet.

Source

Edited July 11, 2009 by Saru
Added source link - please always include a source with quoted material

[star_wars]

sounds a lot like the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary is a legendary plant of central Asia, believed to grow sheep as its fruit. 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. It was known under various other names including the Scythian Lamb, the Borometz, Barometz and the Borametz. This plant produces a woolly mass supported by a number of stems. The Tradescant Museum of Garden History has one under glass.

http://www.sw-gm.com/articles.php?a=322

Awesome animal. All the pleasure of meat combined with the healthy substances of plants

[star_wars]

sounds a lot like the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary is a legendary plant of central Asia, believed to grow sheep as its fruit. 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. It was known under various other names including the Scythian Lamb, the Borometz, Barometz and the Borametz. This plant produces a woolly mass supported by a number of stems. The Tradescant Museum of Garden History has one under glass.

Source

Awesome animal. All the pleasure of meat combined with the healthy substances of plants

I fixed the pic, somehow I couldn't edit my last post O.o

[TheSearcher]

First of all, this has been discussed already, in the forum. See this thread. That's just for info, as there's not a lot to the thread either.

Secondly, the thing was described by Sir John Mandeville and also Claude Duret (Description to be found here). But, here's the problem :

Sir John Mandeville, is the name of the author of a book describing some alleged travels, published between 1357 and 1371. (Wiki about this person) It turns out to be not very trustworthy.

Claude Duret, on the other hand was a judge by trade, and author of many books. His "Historie Admirable des Plantes" is a compilation of stories about plant life, brought back by travellers. The man himself had never set foot outside of France. I would not be surprised, if certain travelers had given their own spin to the stories they told him.

So as far as that goes, it's not very trustworthy sources. Add to that that we are talking about a plant, known in the ancient days by the greeks, the middle east etc. A plant that dies when it runs out of food, since it actually cannot move. You'd think, that a specimen would have been found by now.

This said, there is such a thing like a Barbary Sheep (Ammotragus lervia), which is a species of caprid (goat-antelope) native to rocky mountains in North Africa. Although it is rare in its native North Africa, it has been introduced to North America, southern Europe and elsewhere. It is also known as aoudad, waddan, arui, and arruis. I would suppose that a lamb would be called a Barbary lamb.