Plants of Christmas : Poinsettia

Poinsettia, Euphorbia pulcherrima, ( Family : Euphorbiaceae ) is a species of flowering plant indigenous to Central America. The name ‘poinsettia’ is after Joel Robert Poinsett, the first US Ambassador to Mexico, who introduced the plant into the US in 1828.

The plants’ association with Christmas began in 16^th century Mexico, where legend tells of a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus’s birthday. The girl then was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and become beautiful poinsettias.

Poinsettia is a short-day plant, which means it require a period of uninterrupted long, dark nights in autumn in order to develop flowers, coincidentally the Christmas season. However, the showy red ‘flowers’ are not true flowers. The brilliant red ‘flowers’ are actually modified leaves, call bracts. The actual flower is small yellow at the center of the bracts.

¹As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ²He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins.³"I tell you the truth," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."

Luke 21:1-4

note: info extracted from Wikipedia