In Genesis, what did Noah’s dove return with after leaving the Ark?

In Genesis, Noah’s dove returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf. The sign showed Noah that the floodwaters had receded enough for vegetation to be found outside the Ark.

The episode occurs after Noah first sent out a raven and then released a dove. The dove initially returned because it found nowhere suitable to land. Noah waited seven days and sent it out again; on that second mission, it came back with the olive leaf. After another seven days, Noah sent it out once more, and it did not return.

The olive branch later became a widespread symbol of peace, reconciliation, and hope. That modern symbolism is connected to the biblical story, although Genesis itself presents the leaf primarily as practical evidence that dry land and plant life were reappearing.

The story is sometimes retold with a branch rather than a leaf, but the Genesis wording specifically describes a freshly plucked olive leaf in the dove’s beak.