yaprak

Yaprak is the Turkish noun meaning leaf. It denotes the flat, typically green blade that forms the main photosynthetic surface of a plant’s shoot and participates in gas exchange. In everyday Turkish, yaprak refers to leaves from any plant, not just food-related leaves, and the standard plural is yapraklar. The term is used across botany, cuisine, and culture.

In botanical usage, yaprak describes the leaf as a unit of a plant’s morphology. Leaves vary in size, shape, texture, and venation, and they have functions including photosynthesis, transpiration, and protection. The word helps distinguish foliage from other plant parts in Turkish discourse.

In Turkish cuisine and nearby culinary traditions, yaprak is most widely encountered in yaprak dolması or yaprak sarma, a dish of vine leaves (commonly grape leaves) stuffed with a seasoned rice mixture, sometimes with ground meat. Leaves are typically blanched to soften them before rolling with filling and cooking. This preparation is common in Turkey, the Balkans, Greece, and the Levant, and it influences regional variants such as dolma and sarma.

Outside culinary use, yaprak appears in plant-related terms and in cultural expressions. The word’s core meaning remains practical: leaf.