Since 1992
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By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Pointsettia
Poinsettias are the most popular Christmas plant in the United States, where they are named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, a botanist and U.S. ambassador to Mexico who discovered the plant in Southern Mexico. Poinsett, of French descent, sent cuttings back to his home in South Carolina to introduce the plant to the U.S. in 1828. In Mexico the poinsettia is a perennial shrub that grows 10 to 15 feet tall. The Aztecs considered it a symbol of purity and used the sap for medicine and the flowers to make a reddish-purple dye. The colorful part of the plant we call flowers are actually “bracts,” or modified leaves. There are more than 100 varieties of poinsettias available today. Besides the traditional red they may be white, pink, burgundy, marbled or speckled.
In North America the plant is associated with Christmas as far back as the 1600s. A Mexican legend tells of a young girl who was too poor to offer anything but weeds to Jesus on Christmas Eve. Instructed by an angel, she placed the weeds on the church altar, where they blossomed into beautiful red plants. In Mexico poinsettias are called flores de noche buena, Spanish for “flowers of the good night.” In Spain and Cuba, poinsettias represent a different Christian holiday. The bright red color is seen to represent the blood of the crucifixion and the poinsettia is known as flor de pascua, or Easter flower.
Contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are not poisonous. Ohio State University conducted a study that showed a 50-pound child would have to eat more than 500 leaves to suffer any harmful effect. (It must have been an interesting study to conduct.) However, the leaves can cause vomiting and diarrhea in pets. Poinsettias can flower again the next year, but require very specific light conditions for the plant to do so. More often, the life span of the potted plant is measured in months.
Poinsett is remembered largely through the name he gave the plant and helping to make poinsettias a holiday fixture, but he also cofounded the Smithsonian Institute. Poinsett died December 12, 1851, and Dec. 12 is considered National Poinsettia Day.
