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Occasionally the folklore associated with an herb is just plain odd. That is certainly the case with this fern. While it is a normal fern and has medicinal properties, the myths associated with it are strange and fascinating. You see, for centuries it was believed by many educated men that this fern produced a fruit that would mature into tiny lambs. Yes, baby sheep! This myth has its origins in the ancient middle east. The Greek historian, Herodotus, described a plant that yields a sheep as its fruit. Jewish folklore mentions a plant called “yeduah”, which grew a magical lamb that would die if separated from the plant. This lamb was used for predicting the future. By the Middle ages, these myths seem to have been common among the Tartars, but a similar tradition exists in ancient Chinese folklore.
Tales of fantastic voyages and magical wonders were very popular in England and France. The world was being explored and adventurers who may not have found fortunes in material goods in their journeys, at least returned with wonderful stories of sea monsters, the Phoenix, magic and myth. Whether they learned these stories from foreign cultures or they were the imaginative inventions of sailors is unclear. Thus, around 1360, Sir John Mandeville produced a “memoir” of his adventures that was quite popular. He mentioned a gourd-like fruit growing in Tartary; the fruit once ripe was split open revealing a lamb. Such a document may seem silly in our era, but his text was considered legitimate at the time and even used as a reference by Christopher Columbus!
This led such a man as John Parkinson, physician to the king of England and likely the most educated herbalist in western Europe to include, without irony, in his Theatrum Botanicaum:
This strange living plant as it is reported by divers good authors, is called by the Natives Boremetz, quafi agnellus, by others either Planta Ruthenica agno fimilis, or Agnus Scythicus or by some Plant animal; it groweth among the Tartars about Samarcanda and the parts thereabouts, rising from a seed some- what bigger and rounder than a Melon seed, with a stalk about five palms high, without any leaf thereon, but only bearing a certain fruit on the top, in form resembling a small lamb, whose coat or rind is woolly like unto a Lamb’s skin, the pulp or meat underneath which is like the flesh of a Creville or Lobster, having as it is said blood also in it. It hath the form of a head, hanging down, and feeding on the grass round about it until it hath consumed it and then dyeth, or else will perish if the grass round about it be cutaway of purpose: it hath four legs also hanging down. The Wolves much affect to feed on them.
Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas wrote in a poem in 1587:
But with true beasts, fast in the ground still sticking
Feeding on grass, and th' airy moisture licking,
Such as those Borametz in Scythia bred
Of slender seeds, and with green fodder fed;
Although their bodies, noses, mouths, and eyes,
Of new-yeaned lambs have full the form and guise,
And should be very lambs, save that for foot
Within the ground they fix a living root
Which at their navel grows, and dies that day
That they have browzed the neighboring grass away.
Oh! Wondrous nature of God only good,
The beast hath root, the plant hath flesh and blood.
The nimble plant can turn it to and fro,
The nummed beast can neither stir nor goe,
The plant is leafless, branchless, void of fruit,
The beast is lustless, sexless, fireless, mute:
The plant with plants his hungry paunch doth feede,
Th' admired beast is sowen a slender seed
The myth of the vegetable lamb persisted even into what we could consider a more educated and sophisticated era. As America’s Founding Fathers were were writing documents that would stand the test of time and inspire the world with their logic and brilliance, poets (at least) still found inspiration in this odd tales.
Dr. Erasmus Darwin, The Botanic Garden (1781):
E'en round the Pole the flames of love aspire,
And icy bosoms feel the secret fire,
Cradled in snow, and fanned by Arctic air,
Shines, gentle borametz, thy golden hair
Rooted in earth, each cloven foot descends,
And round and round her flexile neck she bends,
Crops the grey coral moss, and hoary thyme,
Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime;
Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam,
And seems to bleat – a vegetable lamb
Dr. De la Croix, Connubia Florum, Latino Carmine Demonstrata (1791):
For in his path he sees a monstrous birth,
The Borametz arises from the earth
Upon a stalk is fixed a living brute,
A rooted plant bears quadruped for fruit,
…It is an animal that sleeps by day
And wakes at night, though rooted in the ground,
To feed on grass within its reach around.
Of course, though, this fern does not produce tiny sheep or any other animal. It is just a particularly pretty fern. However, it does have medicinal properties. They are simple. This fern has been used for arthritis (as a tea), as a styptic to stop bleeding (the fronds used as a poultice) and in various formulas to support liver health.
This article is an excerpt from
Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies, an Herbalist's Guide
https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/11/medicinal-ferns-and-fern-allies.html
Available for purchase on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMSZSJPS
PS. New today in my Woodcraft shop:
Cherry Spatula and Sauce Spoon
Judson Carroll Woodcraft
Cherry Spatula and Sauce Spoon
This was a fun set to carve, but it took several tries. Spoon carvers call the rise between the bowl and the handle a "crank." Cranked spatulas are among the most difficult to carve because the blade of the spatula must be very thin, with a slow taper to the handle. This combination makes for an easily used kitchen tool that is also very strong…
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2 days ago · 2 likes · Judson Carroll
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Disclaimer
The information on this site is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing on this site has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I am not a doctor. The US government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine and their is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm just a guy who studies herbs. I am not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write is accurate or true! I can tell you what herbs have "traditionally been used for." I can tell you my own experience and if I believe an herb helped me. I cannot, nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use any herb I, or anyone else, mentions you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, sensitivity or underlying condition that no one else shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to read my blog you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices and not to blame me for anything, ever.
