Christmas and poinsettias are practically inseparable. Those beautiful holiday plants that decorate homes, shops and offices have an interesting history that dates from the Aztecs when poinsettias had their beginning in Mexico near present day Taxco.
For most of the year they are nondescript shrubs, but when the days get shorter they develop brilliant red flowers. The Aztecs called them "Cuetlaxochitle," and they were a symbol of purity.King Montezuma imported them because they could not be grown in the capital city (now Mexico City) due to the high altitude and climate.
Aztecs made a reddish-purple dye from the bracts and extracted medicine for fever from the plant's latex.
The association with Christmas, according to legend, comes from a young Mexican girl named Pepita. She was very sad because she was very poor and had no gift to present to the Christ Child at the church service on Christmas Eve.
As she walked sorrowfully to church with her cousin, Pedro, he tried to console her by saying "Pepita, I am certain that even the most humble gift, given in love, will be acceptable to his eyes."
Pepita gathered a bouquet of common weeds from the roadside and entered the church. She approached the altar and placed her gift at the feet of the Christ Child. Miraculously, Pepita's ordinary weeds burst into brilliant red blooms!
They were called Flores de Noche Buena or Flowers of the Holy Night, and, although poinsettias don't change color quite that fast, they do "bloom" as the days become shorter.
The poinsettia's namesake, Joel Roberts Poinsett, was a plantation owner and botanist from South Carolina. From 1825-1829, he served as the first United States ambassador to Mexico. While visiting Taxco, he was impressed by the brilliant red flowers he found during December. He had plants sent to his home and grown in his greenhouse.
The botanical name Euphorbia pulcherrima had already been given by a German taxonomist in 1833, but because of the ambassador, Poinsettia has remained the accepted common name.
The poinsettia's history as a cultivated crop starts with Albert Ecke. He emigrated from Germany to Switzerland to Southern California and began growing the bright scarlet flowers in fields to sell as cut flowers for Christmas. His son Paul realized the potential of the plant and in 1920 developed the first poinsettia cultivar to be successfully grown as an indoor potted plant.
From this humble beginning grew an industry that produces millions of plants to brighten the holiday season. Paul Ecke turned the family business over to his son in the mid-1960s.
Paul Jr. assembled scientific and technical knowledge to bring the Ecke ranch into prominence. It is estimated that more than 90 percent of the poinsettias grown in the world get their start at this one facility in Encinitas, Calif.
Several years ago, I toured their greenhouse facilities where they develop and grow the choicest varieties of poinsettias known in the world today. I learned just how much work goes into development of the new poinsettias at their research facility.
Each year, their plant breeders hybridize more than 10,000 new varieties of plants. Each plant is then carefully grown from seed and evaluated for characteristics that would make it desirable from a consumer's standpoint.
In a good year, one or two of the original 10,000 plants may be introduced into the market. These developmental breeding programs have created shades of red, pink and white poinsettias as well polka dot leaves.
Other selections are made for plants with brighter colors that last longer in our homes as well as those with larger flowers. They have also developed energy-saving plants -- those that can be grown in cooler greenhouses -- and miniature poinsettias and other novelties.
The Ecke catalog lists some 60 varieties this year and cuttings from these plants are sold to growers throughout the world.