Laurels seem to be creeping their way into a number of news articles lately ... an excerpt from the Star-Ledger:

Indigenous to Asia Minor, bay leaf has been grown since ancient times throughout the Mediterranean region. According to Greek mythology, the earth goddess Gaea transformed the nymph Daphne into a laurel tree to help her escape the unwanted advances of the god Apollo. To this day the Green word for laurel is "dhafni."

Since Apollo was the patron of poets, in ancient times it was customary for poets and other scholars to be crowned with laurel wreaths -- hence, the terms poet laureate and baccalaureate. "A victorious general did not pin medals on his toga; he wore a crown of bay leaves and carried a branch of laurel in his hand," wrote food historian Waverly Root in "Food" (Konecky & Konecky, 1980). Similarly, victorious Olympians and other athletes were honored with crowns of laurel. Because the Romans believed that the laurel was the only plant never struck by lighting, the emperor Tiberius always wore a wreath fashioned from bay laurel leaves during thunderstorms.

... not sure about that reference to Tiberius ... sounds a bit more like Gaius (Caligula) to me.