Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

Common name: Scythian-lamb, gou ji

Family: Cibotiaceae

Distribution: China

Life form: Fern or Fern ally

Comments: Southern China; Japan - Ryukyu Islands; India; Myanmar; Taiwan; Indochina; Thailand; Malaysia; Indonesia - Java, Sumatra. On open hill slopes and stream banks in tropical evergreen forest at 500 to 800 m, and in lower montane forest at 1000 to 1500 m. Locally used for medicine, especially the silky hairs on the buds - used for fresh wounds. It was thought to be the mythical 'vegetable lamb of Tartary' during the Middle Ages due to the resemblance of its woolly rhizomes to a lamb.