These laurels are hardy Oct 19, 2021

These laurels are hardy

Go back 15 million years and you"d find most of Southern Europe looking like this fantasy forest: thick, scrubby underbrush canopied by wizened laurel trees. An epoch or two of human agricultural advances cleared those ancient woods, but patches persist on a few temperate Atlantic islands—especially here on Madeira, a Portuguese-held island off northwest Africa.

© Val Thoermer/Alamy

palette

Today in History

Oct 19, 2018Portland celebrates its bounty
Oct 19, 2020A cliff-hanging complex of temples
Oct 19, 2022Wartburg Castle overlooking Thuringian Forest in Germany
Oct 19, 2023Mekong River Delta, Long An, Vietnam
Oct 19, 2024International Archaeology Day
Oct 19, 2025Apples ready for harvest in Minnesota

More Desktop Wallpapers:

May 6, 2025An ultralight aircraft flying over the sands of Namibia
Jul 6, 2019Racers pushing past sunflowers in the 2018 Tour de France
Jun 14, 2018Celebrating Flag Day: ‘O long may it wave’
Jan 18, 2018Entoloma hochstetteri mushroom at Lake Mahinapua, New Zealand
Sep 11, 202120 years later
Nov 15, 2018‘Ocian in view! O! The joy.’
Oct 2, 2019Wild scene on the Merced River
Feb 27, 2020Three cheers for polar bears!
Jul 21, 2024Kendwa village, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Nov 14, 2024Manarola, Cinque Terre National Park, Liguria, Italy
Oct 5, 2021A day to celebrate teachers
Jan 21, 2022National Hug Day
Jun 18, 2024Lupine fields, Snæfellsnes, Iceland
Mar 9, 2019Let the harvest begin
Jul 16, 2022American goldfinch
Mar 6, 2020Hello, harbinger of spring
May 22, 2019The artists come to Venice
Mar 29, 2026Peggys Point Lighthouse, Atlantic Coast, Nova Scotia, Canada
Nov 23, 2018Let the holiday shopping commence
Mar 23, 2018Happy World Meteorological Day
Jun 6, 2022Indigo bunting
Apr 30, 2022International Jazz Day
Jan 15, 2024Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Aug 21, 2023Discovery Day in Yukon, Canada
May 21, 2021Whoopin it up!
Aug 21, 2021Ambassadors of the airwaves
Feb 4, 2025Golden Bridge, Bà Nà Hills, Da Nang, Vietnam
Sep 10, 2022Mid-Autumn Festival
Aug 4, 2024Friendship Day
Feb 10, 2024Happy Lunar New Year!