POINSETTIAS TOP-SELLING POTTED PLANT IN U.S.

The “weeds” in the legend were poinsettias, the top-selling potted plant in the U.S.

Poinsettias were cultivated by the Aztecs in Mexico before Christianity came to the Western Hemisphere. The plant was native to an area called Taxo del Alarcon in southern Mexico, where it grows year round as a woody shrub to a height of 10 feet.

This fact, that poinsettias grow as small trees, reminded me of an experience I had in 1998 when I visited a botanical garden in southern Egypt. I asked our tour guide what the beautiful tree was with the bright red flowers. “That’s poinsettia,” he replied. It was the first time I had seen plants larger than the 2-foot potted plants we use for decorating in Minnesota.

Poinsettias are genetically wired to bloom during the shorter days of winter, according to Dr. Leonard Perry, a University of Vermont horticulturist. He says research in the 20th century showed the poinsettia requires a specific number of hours of darkness each night to bloom.

Due to its brilliant color the flower was considered a symbol of purity by the native Mexicans. It was highly prized by Kings Netzahualcoyotl and Montezuma, even though they could not grow it in the cooler climate of their capital (present-day Mexico City).

The Aztecs used poinsettias to make a purplish dye from its bracts (the colored parts we think of as the flowers) and to treat fevers using the plant’s milky sap, or latex. Using poinsettias for Christmas decorating was a natural due to its December bloom and beautiful green and red color. As early as the 17th century, Franciscan priests near Taxco used the flower in a nativity procession, the Fiesta of Santa Pesebre.

The first of three people responsible for the poinsettia’s popularity was Joel Roberts Poinsett, Ambassador to Mexico from 1825 to 1829. As an aside, Poinsett later founded what we know today as the Smithsonian Institute. 

Poinsett, an enthusiastic botanist, sent some of these plants in 1828 to his Greenville, South Carolina plantation. He propagated the plants and sent them to relatives and friends, including Colonel Robert Carr, then owner of the Bartram Nursery of Philadelphia. Carr introduced the poinsettia into cultivation and trade in 1829 at an exhibition of the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society.

Poinsettia is a member of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, and was first marketed as Euphorbia poinsettia. A German taxonomist correctly named it Euphorbia pulcherrima (most beautiful) in 1833, the correct scientific name to this day.

William Prescott, a historian and horticulturist, was asked to give Euphorbia pulcherrima a new name as it became more popular. Prescott had just published a book called the Conquest of Mexico in which he detailed Poinsett’s discovery of the plant. Prescott named the plant the poinsettia in honor of Poinsett’s discovery.

The poinsettia was shipped around the country during the 1800's, more as an outdoor plant for warm climates. Around 1920 in southern California, a horticulturist named Paul Ecke became the third key person to promote the poinsettia. He believed this roadside shrub would make a perfect Christmas flower and began raising poinsettias in fields in what is now Hollywood. A few years later, development forced a move south to Encinitas where the Paul Ecke Ranch continues to produce poinsettias today.

Through the marketing efforts of Ecke and his sons, the poinsettia has become symbolic with Christmas. An Act of Congress has even set December 12, the anniversary of Poinsett’s death, as National Poinsettia Day.

Originally only red in color, through the breeding efforts of the Eckes and others, poinsettias today may be found in many shades of red to almost purple, pink, bicolors, and even white. There are more than 100 varieties of poinsettias available.

According to the Paul Ecke Ranch website, more than 75% of the poinsettias grown in North America – and 50% grown in the world – get their start at the company’s California ranch.