Poinsettia

Euphorbia pulcherrima, commonly called the poinsettia, is a commercially important flowering shrub or small tree of the spurge family Euphorbiaceae, native to mid elevation, Pacific-facing slopes running from Mexico to southern Guatemala, with genetic evidence pointing to populations in Guerrero, Mexico as ancestral to most cultivated varieties. Standing zero point six to four meters tall, the plant is best known for its brightly colored bracts, most often red but also found in orange, pink, white or cream, which are commonly mistaken for petals; its true flowers are small and yellow, clustered within structures called cyathia at the center of each bract whorl. Its English name comes from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States minister to Mexico, who introduced the plant to America in the 1820s, though its Nahuatl name cuetlaxochitl is seeing renewed use amid concerns over Poinsett history as a slaveholder. The plant has become closely tied to Christmas celebrations, and in the United States alone roughly seventy million poinsettias are sold within a six week season each year.