South American Plants – Poinsettia

Name - poinsettia is named after Dr Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was appointed US Ambassador to the newly created republic of Mexico in 1825. Poinsett was a keen botanist, although not a popular ambassador! His policies in Mexico were so unpopular that the Mexicans created a new word ‘poinsettismo’ to describe officious and offensive behaviour – odd, given that we think of the flower as a marker of Christmas good cheer and hospitality as it is a favourite gift to give a hostess who supplies your Christmas dinner.

Description - The poinsettia’s colour comes not from the flowers, which are tiny yellow blossoms but from the brilliant red bracts, or false leaves. In Mexico it was called flor de la noche buena or ‘flower of the beautiful nativity’ and was used to decorate churches at Christmas. Unlike the houseplant that we use today, the native plants were up to sixteen feet tall and the bracts were picked by young men who had to climb stepladders to harvest them.

Origin – the poinsettia is an unusual specimen in that it only sets its flowers when the nights are long and the days are short, the opposite of usual plant behaviour. When it is raised in greenhouses for Christmas, the day and night hours are controlled by special lighting systems. If you are given a poinsettia and you want to get it to bloom again in time for next Christmas, you need to begin in October by covering the plant at about four in the afternoon and not lifting the cover until eleven in the morning, to encourage its natural behaviour. The plant is part of the euphorbia or spurge family, all of which are powerful purgatives – in other words, they promote the action of throwing up! They were widely used in the Middle Ages to rid the body of evil humours, but taken in any quantity they are poisonous and the milky sap that oozes from broken stems can cause rash and blisters so this is a plant to be kept away from animals and children.

For Decoration – new varieties in pink and white add to the Christmas fun – one thing to note, the glitter that is applied to poinsettia leaves or bracts at the florists shop can double their price – do it yourself with a lightly beaten egg white and a pack of craft glitter.

South American poinsettia photograph by exfordy, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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