For flower and plant shops at this time of year, it’s all about selling poinsettias.
People buy millions of these colorful plants in the weeks leading up to Christmas, though not all of them refer to the plants as poinsettias.
In fact, people have some really big feelings about these names.
The plant is native to Mexico.
Aztec people called it cuetlaxochitl, which means “plant that withers”; I guess whoever came up with the name was giving it too much water.
The Mayan name, k’alul wits, means “ember flower.”
Later, when Spanish friars traveled to Mexico in the 1500s, they referred to it as Flor de Noche Buena, or “flower of the holy night.”
For many people in Latin American countries, Noche Buena (literally “the good night”) is the big December holiday, taking place the night before Christmas.
Since these plants are at their brightest in December, they became the flowers of the holiday.
Another Spanish name for the plant translates to “scarlet cloth.”
It got another name after Joel Roberts Poinsett became US Ambassador to Mexico in the 1820s.
Poinsett was interested in botany, and after seeing the plant in a nativity display, he had clippings sent back to the US to be cultivated and shared with friends.
A botanist named it the poinsettia in honor of the ambassador.
But Mexicans were not interested in honoring Poinsett, who meddled in their politics to try to make sure the country was sufficiently pro-American; they started referring to American political meddling as poinsettismo.
So the name poinsettia didn’t really catch on there.
Nor did it take root in Argentina; there the plant is called “estrella federal,” or “federal star.”
Peru uses the term “penacho de Incan,” meaning “headdress.”
So you have lots of choices about what to call it, including the scientific name: Euphorbia pulcherrima, which in Latin means the most beautiful of its genus.
Maybe next the plant will stop using all its previous names and just go by an unpronounceable symbol…
Today in 1997, the US release of the movie “Titanic.”
Which reminds me of a 2023 story from Variety about a video editor in Florida who collected thousands of VHS copies of the movie.
His goal: collecting one million videotapes.
If he reaches that goal, does he become king of the world?
The checkered history of the poinsettia’s namesake and the flower’s origins get new attention (Seattle Times)
A ‘Titanic’ Megafan Has 1,560 Copies on VHS. He Won’t Stop Until He Has 1 Million (Variety)
One name we’d like to use for you: Patreon backer. Support our show today!