Well, wild olives are all over the place (Olea europaea ssp cuspidata) and
they look nothing like birches. Anything with the name white in it is at
least a candidate
PvR

o8TY schreef

One might also compare the name Semele, mother of Dionysios, with semuda.
I recall a somewhat famous kulikes (elevated wine cup) with a red background
showing Dionysios riding in a boat with overhanging leaves and fruit
resembling that of the vine, but possible also of the leaves and catkins
of a birch.

In his 3rd Olympian Ode, written in the late 6th or early 5th C BC, Pindar
says that Herakles brought back a "wild olive" (Gk agrielaios?) from the
land of the Hyperboreans ("beyond the north wind") for use in a ceremony
at Olympia, while others say that he brought a "white poplar" (Gk "leuke")
from around Thesprotia (below Dodona in west central Greece). I would be
more
inclined to believe that the reference was to the birch in both of these
instances, but where by the 6th C the name for the tree was already lost.
Not knowing what the wild olive looked like, the white poplar in any case
has a similar appearance to the birch.

This late reply is due to my newsgroup server being down all week.