December 12 is National Poinsettia Day in the United States. So let us follow the story of one of the most popular Christmas flowers.
The poinsettia is a native plant of Mexico and the Aztec called it Cuetlaxochitl, meaning “flower that grows in residues”.
Because of its brilliant colour, the poinsettia was a symbol of purity, and its name signified “Flower that withers, mortal flower that perishes like all that is pure”.
The Aztec used the plant to produce red dye and a medicine for fever and only in the 16th century it got associated with Christmas.
According to a legend, a girl, commonly called Pepita or Maria, too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus’s birth, gathered weeds and placed them in front of a church altar. A miracle took place with the weeds turning into crimson-scarlet blossoms. The poinsettia was born.
During the following centuries, the cuetlaxochitl, became a symbol of Christmas and got the name Flor de la Noche Buena (the Flower of Christmas Eve).
The Franciscan friars, evangelising areas of Mexico, included the plant in their Christmas celebrations – piñata breaking and gifts exchange in a surrounding lavishly decorated with poinsettia plants.
The star-shaped leaves were said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red colour to represent the blood sacrifice through the crucifixion of Jesus.
In 1828, the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, interested in botany, sent the flower to North America where into the following century it turned into a Christmas mainstay.
The plant was initially known as “painted leaf” or “Mexican fire plant” until the early 1830s when it eventually was named poinsetta pulcherrima, or poinsettia, in honour of Dr. Poinsett.
In 1836, the British Curtis’s botanical magazine first presented the plant into the horticulture scenery.
Today, poinsettia may be found in many different colours and sizes and is the most popular Christmas potted plant.
