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What are Olympian "laurels" made of?
Off-topic, of course, but connected with flora. Please forgive me.
Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. Actually, laurel is an edible plant, good in stews and soups, so this is not as off-topic as I first thought. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel Saddam is gone. Ceterum, censeo Arafat esse delendam. |
Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which
the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. The Romans also adopted the custom of bestowing wreaths for meritorious service, and they used often laurel, which was supposed to be a symbol of the god Saturn and of the Caesars. The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, the stuff of the kitchen, which was highly prized for medicine and cooking, even then. The death of a bay tree in a household garden was a portent of great evil for the home, btw. (Did not pay to be a lousy gardener in Roman times!) -=epm=- In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same. - Albert Einstein |
Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which
the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. The Romans also adopted the custom of bestowing wreaths for meritorious service, and they used often laurel, which was supposed to be a symbol of the god Saturn and of the Caesars. The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, the stuff of the kitchen, which was highly prized for medicine and cooking, even then. The death of a bay tree in a household garden was a portent of great evil for the home, btw. (Did not pay to be a lousy gardener in Roman times!) -=epm=- In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same. - Albert Einstein |
hmmm...I thought it was Bay...but I certainly could be wrong.
"EvelynMcH" wrote in message ... Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. The Romans also adopted the custom of bestowing wreaths for meritorious service, and they used often laurel, which was supposed to be a symbol of the god Saturn and of the Caesars. The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, the stuff of the kitchen, which was highly prized for medicine and cooking, even then. The death of a bay tree in a household garden was a portent of great evil for the home, btw. (Did not pay to be a lousy gardener in Roman times!) -=epm=- In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same. - Albert Einstein |
hmmm...I thought it was Bay...but I certainly could be wrong.
"EvelynMcH" wrote in message ... Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. The Romans also adopted the custom of bestowing wreaths for meritorious service, and they used often laurel, which was supposed to be a symbol of the god Saturn and of the Caesars. The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, the stuff of the kitchen, which was highly prized for medicine and cooking, even then. The death of a bay tree in a household garden was a portent of great evil for the home, btw. (Did not pay to be a lousy gardener in Roman times!) -=epm=- In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same. - Albert Einstein |
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You're correct - it's the Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) - not the olive.
Paolo "Stan Goodman" wrote in message news:uViCr8LlbtmJ-pn2-Oq2BrhM5h4EM@poblano... On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:01:15 UTC, (EvelynMcH) opined: Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. Doesn't look like olive. The green is too bright. Olive trees are almost grey. The Romans .... The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, I don't know what "bay laurel" is. The plant that grows around the Mediterranean is L. Nobilis, which is ubiquitous here. It would take over my lot, if I let it. |
You're correct - it's the Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) - not the olive.
Paolo "Stan Goodman" wrote in message news:uViCr8LlbtmJ-pn2-Oq2BrhM5h4EM@poblano... On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:01:15 UTC, (EvelynMcH) opined: Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. Doesn't look like olive. The green is too bright. Olive trees are almost grey. The Romans .... The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, I don't know what "bay laurel" is. The plant that grows around the Mediterranean is L. Nobilis, which is ubiquitous here. It would take over my lot, if I let it. |
wrote:
You're correct - it's the Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) - not the olive. Paolo "Stan Goodman" wrote in message news:uViCr8LlbtmJ-pn2-Oq2BrhM5h4EM@poblano... On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:01:15 UTC, (EvelynMcH) opined: Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. Doesn't look like olive. The green is too bright. Olive trees are almost grey. The Romans .... The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, I don't know what "bay laurel" is. The plant that grows around the Mediterranean is L. Nobilis, which is ubiquitous here. It would take over my lot, if I let it. The ones being used in the current games are olive. In the ancient Olympic games, olive wreaths were originally used but in the rival Pythian Games in Delphi they used laurel wreaths to honor Apollo, who is symbolized by laurel. In the Isthmian Games a wreath of celery was used and in the Nemean Games it was a wreath of parsley. It was the Romans who more or less standardized wreaths of honor as being madw of laurel. But in the modern Olympic game it's olive. 2,563 olive wreaths and bouquets for the Olympics and 2,960 for the Paralympics are being donated by Interflora. Lorenzo L. Love http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove “If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” Cicero |
Stan Goodman wrote:
Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. There's two villages in Greece with really old olive trees. Both insist that theirs is the older tree, the tree in the other village is merely a sapling, a few hundred years old. They've stopped feuding for the duration of the games, as the Olympic Committee decided to take branches from both trees for the most important laurels - marathon perhaps? I forget. They're also using branches from a dozen or so olive trees planted some years ago for just that purpose. Interflora, possibly, dunno, they haven't talked about that in our newspapers. .... the feud included one village asking the other to cut their tree down and count the rings, they'd do the same, honest, would we lie to you? The other village declined. There's nothing like a fight that you can hand down to your grandkids' grandkids' grandkids, really. Henriette -- Henriette Kress, AHG * * * * * * * * * * *Helsinki, Finland Henriette's herbal homepage: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed |
Stan Goodman wrote:
Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. There's two villages in Greece with really old olive trees. Both insist that theirs is the older tree, the tree in the other village is merely a sapling, a few hundred years old. They've stopped feuding for the duration of the games, as the Olympic Committee decided to take branches from both trees for the most important laurels - marathon perhaps? I forget. They're also using branches from a dozen or so olive trees planted some years ago for just that purpose. Interflora, possibly, dunno, they haven't talked about that in our newspapers. .... the feud included one village asking the other to cut their tree down and count the rings, they'd do the same, honest, would we lie to you? The other village declined. There's nothing like a fight that you can hand down to your grandkids' grandkids' grandkids, really. Henriette -- Henriette Kress, AHG * * * * * * * * * * *Helsinki, Finland Henriette's herbal homepage: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed |
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 15:30:13 UTC, opined:
You're correct - it's the Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) - not the olive. Paolo If you are saying that the wreaths I have been seeing on the TV are Laurel, you are mistaken. They don't look anything like laurel. I accept that they are made of olive branches, largely because there was a segment on the evening news yesterday, showing a team of Greeks in Athens who are turning them out for the medal winners. In this segment, one could see that they were indeed olive, just as the sound track was saying. My earlier objection to that was that the color seemed wrong; I now attribute that to an artifact of color balance in the program transmission at some point. "Stan Goodman" wrote in message news:uViCr8LlbtmJ-pn2-Oq2BrhM5h4EM@poblano... On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:01:15 UTC, (EvelynMcH) opined: Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. Doesn't look like olive. The green is too bright. Olive trees are almost grey. The Romans .... The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, I don't know what "bay laurel" is. The plant that grows around the Mediterranean is L. Nobilis, which is ubiquitous here. It would take over my lot, if I let it. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel Saddam is gone. Ceterum, censeo Arafat esse delendam. |
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 15:30:13 UTC, opined:
You're correct - it's the Bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) - not the olive. Paolo If you are saying that the wreaths I have been seeing on the TV are Laurel, you are mistaken. They don't look anything like laurel. I accept that they are made of olive branches, largely because there was a segment on the evening news yesterday, showing a team of Greeks in Athens who are turning them out for the medal winners. In this segment, one could see that they were indeed olive, just as the sound track was saying. My earlier objection to that was that the color seemed wrong; I now attribute that to an artifact of color balance in the program transmission at some point. "Stan Goodman" wrote in message news:uViCr8LlbtmJ-pn2-Oq2BrhM5h4EM@poblano... On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:01:15 UTC, (EvelynMcH) opined: Does anyone recognize what plant is being used for the wreaths with which the Olympic medal winners are being crowned? It is certainly not laurel, which is the traditional source of the branches for this purpose. The wreath is actually an olive wreath, made of olive leaves, like those used in the early olympics by the Greeks. The wreaths are proving so popular that there is talk that they may be used in future Olympics. Doesn't look like olive. The green is too bright. Olive trees are almost grey. The Romans .... The laurel they used is a variety of bay laurel, I don't know what "bay laurel" is. The plant that grows around the Mediterranean is L. Nobilis, which is ubiquitous here. It would take over my lot, if I let it. -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel Saddam is gone. Ceterum, censeo Arafat esse delendam. |
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