December 12 - National Poinsettia Day in the U.S.A.

  Posted on December 12, 2021

This is an update of my post published on December 12, 2010:

To celebrate National Poinsettia Day, take a quick quiz to see how much you know about this popular plant:

1. What color are poinsettia flowers?

2. What was the name of the person who introduced this plant to the U.S.?

3. Of which country is this plant a native?

4. How are poinsettias used?

5. Why is December 12 National Poinsettia Day?

6. Are poinsettias poisonous?

7. How many pots of poinsettias are sold each year?

Answers:

1. Yellow. Poinsettia flowers are the tiny yellow clusters found in the center of the red, white, or pink leaves that most people think are the flowers of the plant. These colored leaves are called bracts. The bracts achieve their holiday colors during the winter because, like leaves changing color in the fall, the color change is a response to changing day length. The bracts require several months of at least 12 hours of darkness at a time to change color. Lots of bright sun during the short days helps them to achieve bright colors.

2. Joel Roberts Poinsett is credited with bringing this plant to the United States. (I guess you know where we get the name for this plant!) He was the son of a doctor and had attended medical school himself, but his main scientific interest was botany, and he kept a hothouse for growing exotic plants. He had been appointed the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico by President Madison, and it was on one of his many trips to Mexico that he discovered the plant that now bears his name.
   
   

   

   
   

3. Poinsettias are native to Mexico, where they are called Noche Buena (“Good Night,” which is a term for Christmas Eve).

4. Ancient Aztecs used the bracts of poinsettias for dye in cosmetics and textiles, and they used the plant's milky white sap to make a medicine to treat fevers. The Aztecs called the plant cuetlaxochitl. Gee, I just don't get why we didn't use THAT name!

5. Joel Roberts Poinsett died on December 12, 1851. Since the plant blooms during the winter and is associated with the Christmas holiday, Poinsett's death day was an appropriate day to honor the man and the flower.

   

6. No. Most plants in the poinsettia's genus are toxic, but poinsettias are only mildly irritating to skin or stomach. Eating them could give you a tummy ache or even cause vomiting, but it wouldn't kill you. The urban legend that the plants are highly toxic probably started in 1919 when people said that a two-year-old child's death was caused by eating a leaf. Experiments have shown that a child would have to eat at least 500 leaves or bracts to die!

7. Poinsettias are the largest flowering plant crop in the U.S., with sales of from 35 million to 70 million pots per year - in the U.S. alone! Of course, there are also silk and plastic poinsettias sold and displayed at this time of the year.
   
   (I read that half of the world's supply of poinsettias, and more than two-thirds of the U.S. supply of poinsettias are grown at a single ranch in Southern California!!)
   
   

   

Also on this date:

December 12, 2010

National Poinsettia Day – U.S.

On this day, take a quick quiz to see how much you know about poinsettias:

1. What color are poinsettia flowers?

2. What was the name of the person who introduced this plant to the U.S.?

3. 
   Of which country is this plant a native?

4. How are poinsettias used?

5. Why is December 12 National Poinsettia Day?

6. Are poinsettias poisonous?

7. How many pots of poinsettias are sold each year?

Answers:

1. Yellow. Poinsettia flowers are the tiny yellow clusters found in the center of the red, white, or pink leaves that most people think are the flowers of the plant. These colored leaves are called bracts. The bracts achieve their holiday colors during the winter because, like leaves changing color in the fall, the color change is a response to changing day length. The bracts require several months of at least 12 hours of darkness at a time to change color. Lots of bright sun during the short days helps them to achieve bright colors.

2. 
   Joel Roberts Poinsett is credited with bringing this plant to the United States. (I guess you know where we get the name for this plant!) He was the son of a doctor and had attended medical school himself, but his main scientific interest was botany, and he kept a hothouse for growing exotic plants. He had been appointed the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico by President Madison, and it was on one of his many trips to Mexico that he discovered the plant that now bears his name.

3. Poinsettias are native to Mexico, where they are called Noche Buena (“Good Night,” which is a term for Christmas Eve).

4. Ancient Aztecs used the bracts of poinsettias for dye in cosmetics and textiles, and they used the plant's milky white sap to make a medicine to treat fevers. The Aztecs called the plant cuetlaxochitl. Gee, I just don't get why we didn't use THAT name!

5. Joel Roberts Poinsett died on December 12, 1851. Since the plant blooms during the winter and is associated with the Christmas holiday, Poinsett's death day was an appropriate day to honor the man and the flower.

6. No. Most plants in the poinsettia's genus are toxic, but poinsettias are only mildly irritating to skin or stomach. Eating them could give you a tummy ache or even cause vomiting, but it wouldn't kill you. The urban legend that the plants are highly toxic probably started in 1919 when people said that a two-year-old child's death was caused by eating a leaf. Experiments have shown that a child would have to eat at least 500 leaves or bracts to die!

7. Poinsettias are the largest flowering plant crop in the U.S., with sales of over 63 million pots per year. And that doesn't even count all the silk and plastic fake poinsettias seen at this time of the year!

December 19, 2009

Las Posadas – Mexico

This is the third night of this 9-day Christmas celebration. Children are chosen to play the roles of Mary, Joseph, angels, and shepherds, and at dusk they dress up and parade through streets, singing songs about needing shelter or lodging (posadas means “inns”). Adults follow with lighted candles.

At most of the neighborhood homes, the procession is turned away (in song), but at the neighborhood home that is hosting that night, the hosts sing a reply and then open their doors to the procession. Party food includes hot ponche, fried cookies called bunuelos, tamales, and so forth. Usually there is a pinata in the shape of a Christmas star as well.

This celebration originated in Spain and is practiced by some in other Latin American countries and communities, but it is most widespread in Mexico. There are of course lots of variations. One example is that, in some towns the child playing Mary rides a donkey or burro; in others, no one plays the part of Mary and Joseph, but instead adults carry large posters picturing them.

The song and some of its lyrics can be found here.

Lots of information and resources can be found here.

Make bunuelos using this recipe:

BUNUELOS DE PASCUA NAVIDENA
Ingredients:

2-1/2 cups flour, sifted three times
2 cups peeled and finely chopped pine nuts
4 spoons white sugar
2 spoons green lemon rind 1 spoon baking powder
4 fresh egg yolks
4 egg whites, beaten
plenty of frying oil

Directions:

• Beat the yolks until they rise. Add the lemon rind, flour (previously sifted with the baking powder, mixing it with the egg whites and the pine nuts) a very thick paste must be formed. If the paste is loose, add some more flour.
• Pour plenty of oil in a pan and when it is hot, take spoons of the paste and fry them on low fire, covering them with oil so they rise.
• Drain the grease and sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

Here are more recipes for ponche, bunuelos, and tamales.




Make mini-pinatas using instructions found here.

Decorate with poinsettias! (Real, silk flowers, or paper handcrafts.)

This flower is one of the world's favorite Christmas imports from Mexico! Notice that the red “petals” are really leaves, and the small yellow “flower centers” are the actual flowers.

Here are some instructions for drawing poinsettias.