From cuetlaxochitl to Poinsettia: The botanical diplomacy of Joel Roberts Poinsett
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
March 2, 1779
Dearest reader,
On this day, we celebrate the birth of Joel Roberts Poinsett, a remarkable physician, botanist, statesman, and diplomat whose name today graces one of the most beloved holiday plants—the Poinsettia.
In the 1820s, under the appointment of President John Quincy Adams, Poinsett served as the first U.S. Minister to Mexico, a role rich with political intrigue and botanical discoveries.
It was during this time that he was introduced to the striking plant the Aztecs called cuetlaxochitl (“qwet-la-SHO-chee-til”), now better known as the Poinsettia.
This plant, famed for its vivid rosy-crimson bracts, was much more than ornamental. The Aztecs used the white sap of the Poinsettia—as with other euphorbias—to treat wounds, skin diseases, and fever, earning it the common name “Skin Flower.” Joel Poinsett sent clippings of this beautiful botanical treasure back home to South Carolina in 1825, igniting botanical fascination.
The plant soon earned the names “the Mexican Fire Plant” and “the Painted Leaf.” The noted botanist Karl Wilenow (“Vill-ah-no”) gave it its formal title, Euphorbia pulcherrima—pulcherrima meaning “very beautiful.”
By 1836, the Poinsettia’s brilliance had caught the attention of English newspapers, which praised it thusly:
“Poinsettia Pulcherrima… the bracts which surround the numerous flowers, are of the most brilliant rosy-crimson color, the splendor of which is quite dazzling.
Few, if any, of the most highly valued beauties of our gardens, can vie with this.”
Each year on December 12th—the anniversary of Joel Poinsett’s passing—garden lovers celebrate National Poinsettia Day, honoring the legacy of a man whose diplomatic missions opened doors for botanical wonders to cross borders.
Dear reader, as the festive season draws near and the Poinsettia lights up your home or garden, might you ponder its rich history and the curious hands that introduced it to the wider world?
What other garden treasures await their own stories to be told, quietly growing in some distant land?
