History of the Poinsettia

LA NOCHEBUENA

by René Ballesteros, Museum of South Texas History Community Engagement Officer

Euphoria pulcherrima, cuetlaxochitle, flame leaf, fire flower, flor de nochebuena, and poinsettia are all names given to a plant commonly used to represent the holiday season.

Indigenous to Mexico, the cuetlaxochitle (poinsettia) was once used by Aztec priests and healers for medicine and ceremonies. Montezuma, the last of the great Aztec warrior-kings, even imported poinsettias to the capital city of Tenochtitlan because the flowers could not be grown in the city’s high altitudes.

Following the Spanish conquest, legends of why nochebuenas (poinsettias) have red leaves sprouted in Mexico. One legend tells the story of Pepita, a young Mexican girl who had nothing to offer the Christ Child. Determined to offer a gift, Pepita found flowering weeds along the road and made them into a bouquet. The cathedral that hosted the Christmas shrine was full of people when Pepita placed her bouquet of weeds before the manger. Suddenly, the weeds burst into blossoms of brilliant red, and everyone was certain they had seen a Christmas miracle.

This history offers some explanation for the plant’s popularity in Mexico, but how did the poinsettia become so widespread in the U.S.A. and worldwide? In 1820, President Andrew Jackson elected Joel Roberts Poinsett to the United States Congress and appointed him as the first United States Ambassador to Mexico. Poinsett had a passion for botany. In December of 1828, Poinsett “discovered” a dramatic-looking flower growing alongside the road near the town of Taxco. Poinsett sent cuttings back to the U.S., where they arrived at John Bartram’s in Philadelphia. In 1829, Bartram’s granddaughter’s husband submitted the colorful flower to the 1829 Exposition of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

The rest is history.