μύρτος

Greek myrtos (μύρτος) named the evergreen shrub whose glossy leaves and white flowers were sacred to Aphrodite. According to the myth, when Aphrodite emerged naked from the sea on Cyprus, she hid behind a myrtle bush. The plant became her emblem. Brides wore myrtle wreaths. Temples to Aphrodite were planted with myrtle groves. The scent — sharp, green, slightly sweet — was the smell of love.

The Romans inherited the association. Myrtle was sacred to Venus (the Roman Aphrodite) and was woven into wedding wreaths. Roman generals celebrating a lesser triumph (the ovatio, as opposed to the full triumphus) wore myrtle instead of laurel — a distinction that tells you everything about Roman military vanity.

The word passed through Latin myrtus into Old French mirte and English myrtle by the 1400s. Queen Victoria carried a sprig of myrtle in her wedding bouquet in 1840 — a tradition that every subsequent British royal bride has followed. The myrtle in each bouquet is grown from a plant at Osborne House that descends from Victoria's original sprig.

Common myrtle (Myrtus communis) is native to the Mediterranean. Crepe myrtle, widely planted in the American South, is a different plant entirely (Lagerstroemia indica, from China) — another case of a botanical name migrating to a superficially similar but unrelated species. The Mediterranean shrub and the Chinese tree share a name but nothing else.