Throughout the Christian world one plant has been closely associated with Christmas for the past 150 years and that’s the poinsettia plant. Even though it isn’t native to Europe or North America as they are native to Central America, especially an area of southern Mexico known as ‘Taxco del Alarcon’ where they flower during the winter. The ancient Aztecs from southern Mexico, called them ‘cuetlaxochitl’. The Aztecs had many uses for them including using the flowers to make a purple dye for clothes and cosmetics and the milky white sap was made into a medicine to treat fevers. Today we call the sap latex! The flowers are really special types of leaves known as bracts rather than being flowers. They come in various colours from the traditional red to blue purple and even yellow, and it is the colour combination that is unique for the Christmas season, of red and green.
The poinsettia was made widely known in America because of a man called Joel Roberts Poinsett, from whom the plant received its name. He was the first Ambassador from the USA to Mexico in 1825. Poinsett had some greenhouses on his plantations in South Carolina, and while visiting the Taxco area in 1828. He wandered the beautiful countryside and became enchanted by the brilliant red leaves of an unfamiliar plant. He immediately sent some of the plants back to South Carolina, where he began growing the plants and sending them to friends and botanical gardens. One of the friends he sent plants to, was John Bartram of Philadelphia. At the first Philadelphia flower show, Robert Buist, a plants-man from Pennsylvania saw the flower and he was probably the first person to have sold the poinsettias under their botanical, or latin name, ‘Euphorbia pulcherrima’ (it means, ‘the most beautiful Euphorbia’). They were first sold as cut flowers. It was only in the early 1900s that they were sold as whole plants for landscaping and pot plants. The Ecke family from Southern California were one of, if not, the first to sell them as whole plants and they’re still the main producer of the plants in the USA. It is thought that they became known as Poinsettia in the mid 1830s when people found out who had first brought them to America from Mexico.
It’s Latin name is Euphorbia pulcherrima and it is a shrub or small tree, typically reaching a height of 0.6–4 metres (2–13 ft). The plant bears dark green dentate leaves that measure 6–16 centimetres (2.4–6.3 in) in length. The coloured bracts—which are normally flaming red, with cultivars being orange, pale green, cream, pink, white, or marbled—are often mistaken for flower petals because of their groupings and colours but are actually leaves. The colours of the bracts are created through photoperiodism, meaning that they require darkness, at least fourteen hours at a time for 6–8 weeks in a row, to change colour. The plants also require abundant light during the day for the brightest colour. Semi-evergreen, they generally lose most of their leaves during winter.
The shape and colour of the poinsettia flower and leaves are sometimes thought as a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus. They followed the star to Israel from the East and then right to the spot where Christ Jesus was born. The red coloured leaves are seen to symbolize the blood of Christ. For every Christian the death of Christ on the cross is the symbol of peace and joy which was bought for them through the death of Christ on the cross. The white leaves represent the purity of Christ. Even though Jesus was man he never sinned and thus he could redeem a people for himself. This people are all those who trust and know him as their Saviour. Jesus said in John chapter 16 verse 33, ‘that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.’ For these reasons poinsettias are popular Christmas decorations in homes, churches, offices, and elsewhere across the Christian world.
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