Photo: Orange poinsettia

Photo by Lee Lageschulte

Since these are orange, think of them as Thanksgiving flowers...

By the way, poinsettia has four syllables.

The plant is named for Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, America’s first minister (ambassador) to Mexico between 1825 and 1829. Dr. Poinsett brought the plant to America and raised it in his greenhouses in Charleston, South Carolina. 

It was named in his honor in 1836. The Latin name is Euphorbia pulcherrima, literally “the most beautiful Euphorbia.” 

You may know Dr. Poinsett as the founder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts, predecessor of the Smithsonian Institution.

--Bill Petro, History of the Poinsettia