Nothing from the garden says Merry Christmas more brilliantly that the scarlet-hued beauty known most commonly in Mexico as the Flor de Noche Buena (Christmas Eve Flower).
It also goes by the Spanish monikers Flor de Pastor (Shepherd’s Flower) and Santa Catarina (Saint Catherine), as well as the ancient Nahuatl term Cuitlaxochitl (Star Flower) and its scientific name Euphorbia Pulcherrima.
English-speakers know this illustrious holiday plant as the poinsettia, named after Joel R. Poinsett, an accomplished botanist who first encountered the colorful shrubs in the 1820s while posted as the first U.S. ambassador to the newly independent Mexico.
Poinsettias are native to tropical zones in Mexico and Central America. In Aztec times it was cultivated in the famed botanical gardens of the Emperor Moctezuma, and prized for its medicinal properties in the treatment of circulatory and skin ailments.
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