In Genesis, what plant leaf did the dove bring back to Noah?

In Genesis, the dove brought Noah a freshly plucked olive leaf.

Genesis 8:10–11 describes Noah waiting seven days before sending the dove out again. The dove returned toward evening with an olive leaf in its beak, showing Noah that the waters had receded from the earth. On a later flight, the dove did not return.

The olive leaf became a widely recognized sign of peace, hope, and the end of catastrophe. That later symbolism is broader than the immediate biblical scene, where the leaf functions as practical evidence that vegetation had reappeared above the receding waters.

The account says “olive leaf,” not an olive branch. Artistic depictions often show a twig or branch because that image is visually clearer, but the specific object named in Genesis is a leaf.