You can thank Joel Poinsett for this

Of all the holiday traditions involving plants, Christmas trees are the most iconic – but the poinsettia has the closest-to-home history. It appeared for the first time in America in Greenville, S.C.

Real quick: Are poinsettias plants or flowers?

Plants. The “red flowers” associated with poinsettias are technically leaves. There are small yellow flowers in the center, but they’re a tiny part of the whole poinsettia plant.

How did the poinsettia end up in America?

Charleston native Joel Roberts Poinsett was the first U.S. Minister to Mexico + an amateur botanist who kept greenhouses on his GVL plantation. 🌱 When he found the poinsettia plant on a trip to Mexico in 1828, he sent cuttings home. Poinsett delivered his new plants to friends in Charleston and Philadelphia + everyone fell in love… the rest is history. (Fun fact: Poinsettia Day is a national holiday on the day of his death, Dec. 12, and Greenville named a bunch of things after him.)

But why is the poinsettia associated with Christmas?

The poinsettia grows as a tree in Mexico + only blooms for a short time around Christmas. Thanks to the poinsettia’s red + green colors, both the plant and the color scheme became popular around the holidays. Today, ~70 million poinsettia plants are sold between Thanksgiving + Christmas.

A few fun facts about poinsettia plants to share at your next holiday potluck:

They’ve also been called lobster plants because of their color (just doesn’t roll off the tongue…) + are known as “the Flower of the Holy Night” in Mexico.
Some latex is made from their sap – so if you’re allergic, you might want to stay away.
Most poinsettia plants are grown in California (The Paul Ecke Ranch in C.A. grows 70%+ of all poinsettias purchased in the U.S.).

Poinsettias are mildly toxic to animals, so I won’t have any in my house for the holidays (my cat Annie is WAY too curious), but I’ll enjoy them from afar.

–Chloe