Poinsettia
Christmas Flower - is well known for its red and green foliage and it creates very popular Christmas floral decorations.
This plant comes from Mexico. The Aztecs Indian were the first to cultivate poinsettias.
An American physician and diplomat Joel Roberts Poinsett brought the poinsettia plants to US in the 1920s, and started to grow them is his greenhouse in South Carolina.
For the first time poinsettia was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society in 1829.
The poinsettia has become very popular holiday plant; there are over 100 cultivated varieties
of poinsettia.
A lot of interesting information about poinsettias can be found on the University of Illinois website
December 12th is Poinsettia Day (the day of the death of Joel Roberts Poinsett in 1851.)
