Friar Oderic of Pordenone holding a branch from a tree on which birds grow, being shown in turn by the local king, the Lamb Tree of Tartary, showing a lamb emerging. The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, legendary zoophyte of Central Asia, once 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. From The Strand Magazine published 1897. From The Strand Magazine published 1897.