Poinsettia |
| Cuernavaco is an ancient town about 47 miles south of Mexico City.
There they say that once upon a time a child grieved because she had no
flowers to take to the manger of the Nativity. As she cried, an angel
appeared and said: "Lovely child, weep no more. Go pluck a weed from
the roadside, bring it to the altar, and wait. " The little girl arose, did as
the angel had commanded, and when she had placed her weed before
the altar it was transformed into a tall beautiful plant bearing a whorl of
brilliant scarlet flowers at the top. That is why the poinsettia is prized
above all Mexican flowers at Christmas.
The poinsettia has become our favorite Christmas flower, too. At this time of year, conservatories exhibit thousands of the scarlet, pink, white and perhaps yellow varieties of this unique plant and people display them in their homes. They enjoy the vivid colors and regard the poinsettia almost as much a symbol of Christmas as the Christmas tree. It is named for Joel Roberts Poinsett of South Carolina who, after being appointed the first U.S. minister to Mexico in 1825, saw it growing there as a roadside weed and brought the first plant to our country. Actually, what you admire is not a flower but a colorful whorl of modified leaves surrounding a cluster of greenish flowers too small to be noticeable. The true flowers are like little vases no larger than a pea, and on its side each has a yellow cup, a gland, brimming with glistening sticky nectar that, if you taste it, is as sweet as honey. Each vase is filled with a bunch of stamens from which projects a typical pistil that bears a tiny seed pod on its tip. Those peculiar flowers have no petals nor sepals and are typical of one of the most important families, commercially, in the plant kingdom: the Spurges -- about 4000 species of herbs, shrubs and trees. Most of them have milky juice and in many it is acrid and poisonous. It includes the rubber trees, the manioc or cassava from which tapioca is made, the castor bean and croton plants producing oils that are powerful purges. Source: Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois |