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:

Jul 27, 2018Composite image of a lunar eclipse
Feb 20, 2023Presidents Day
Mar 21, 2022World Poetry Day
Apr 9, 2020Hooray, hooray, it s Unicorn Day!
Jun 25, 2021Birds and bees, and why they re so important
Mar 2, 2021Fall for Chile
Mar 18, 2018Christmas Tree Point Road and Twin Peaks, San Francisco
Jul 13, 2023International Rock Day
Sep 25, 2021Autumn comes to the Porcupines
Nov 5, 2018Ludwig’s palace
Mar 25, 2025Tolkien Reading Day
Nov 17, 2023National Take a Hike Day
Aug 21, 2024Nazca boobies, Wolf Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Dec 13, 2022Hallstatt, Austria
Oct 9, 2023Indigenous Peoples Day
May 6, 2026Thunderstorm above the plains, Bulgaria
Oct 20, 2025International Sloth Day
Feb 3, 2023Quebec City for Winter Carnival
Mar 17, 2018Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Mar 21, 2026International Day of Forests
May 10, 2020Happy Mother s Day
Feb 3, 2026Emerald Bay and Fannette Island, Lake Tahoe, California
Apr 22, 2024Earth Day
Mar 24, 2020Springtime in the Mediterranean
Nov 13, 2024Sea lion in a kelp forest, Baja California, Mexico
May 20, 2019The island fox’s incredible comeback
Jun 9, 2024Bardenas Reales Biosphere Reserve and Natural Park, Spain
Aug 11, 2018Lace up your hiking boots for Mountain Day
Oct 29, 2021Ravens
Jan 15, 2023Aura River in Turku, Finland