poinsettia

poinsettia, (Euphorbia pulcherrima), well-known member of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), commonly sold as an ornamental at Christmastime. The poinsettia is native to Mexico and Central America, where it grows in moist, wet, wooded ravines and on rocky hillsides. It was named for Joel R. Poinsett, who popularized the plant and introduced it to floriculture while he was U.S. minister to Mexico in the late 1820s. Cultivated varieties are available with white, pink, mottled, and striped bracts, but the solid red varieties, in several shades, remain in greatest demand during the Christmas season.

In warm climates the poinsettia grows outdoors as a winter-flowering leggy shrub about 3 metres (10 feet) high; as a potted plant in northern areas it rarely grows beyond 1 metre. What appear to be petals are actually coloured leaflike bracts that surround a central cluster of tiny yellow flowers. A milky latex in the stems and leaves can be irritating to persons or animals sensitive to it, but the claim that poinsettias are deadly poisonous is greatly exaggerated.

The demand for live poinsettias faces increasing criticism for being wasteful. Each year millions of live potted plants are cultivated and shipped across much of the world for a six-week Christmas season, only to be thrown away in January. Unlike fresh Christmas trees, the cultivation of which has some ecological benefits and for which many municipalities have recycling programs, poinsettias are fairly resource-intensive and typically end up in landfills after the holiday. The plants can be kept as houseplants, though they require specific care in order to trigger the bracts to change colour and “bloom again” the following year.