Poinsettias Worksheet Download

Look at that bright red poinsettia! Do you think its red parts are petals? They are really leaves that turn red when nights grow long!

Those leaves first grew wild in Mexico. People there call the plant flor de Nochebuena. That means Christmas Eve flower.

A man named Joel Poinsett found the Christmas Eve flower in Mexico. He brought it to the United States in the 1820s. That is why the poinsettia has his name!

Have you ever seen a plant with bright red, star-shaped leaves? It is a poinsettia, and it glows at Christmas time! Those red parts look like petals, but they are leaves called bracts.

Those leaves turn red when the nights grow long. In Mexico, wild ones can grow taller than a grown-up! People there call it flor de Nochebuena, which means Christmas Eve flower.

One visitor to Mexico, Joel Poinsett, loved that flower. He sent some plants home to the United States in the 1820s. Now it is named poinsettia for him, but its red "petals" are leaves!

Wow, the red "petals" on a poinsettia are not petals at all! They are really leaves, called bracts, and they spread out like a bright star. The true flowers are the tiny yellow buds in the middle, so look closely!

Watch a poinsettia for weeks in the fall, and its top leaves change from green to red. They change when the nights grow long, so the plant can sense the dark. That is why poinsettias turn red just in time for December.

In Mexico, that glow lights up warm hillsides, where wild poinsettias can grow into shrubs taller than a grown-up. People there call it flor de Nochebuena, which means "Christmas Eve flower." Its cheerful color made it a holiday favorite.

That Christmas Eve flower traveled north in the 1820s, when Joel Poinsett sent plants from Mexico to South Carolina. People named it poinsettia for him, and today greenhouse growers raise millions, making it one of the best-selling potted plants around Christmas. Not bad for a plant whose red "petals" are really leaves!

Imagine you are stepping into a cozy room in December, and bright red catches your eye. It is a poinsettia, a plant with dark green leaves and big red stars on top. Those red parts look like petals, but they are really colored leaves called bracts. The true flowers are the tiny yellow buds in the middle, so look closely!

Look closely in Mexico, and you might spot poinsettias growing wild outdoors as shrubs, some as tall as a small tree. There, people call the plant flor de Nochebuena, which means "Christmas Eve flower." Its red leaves show up in winter, close to Christmas Eve, so it became a holiday favorite. Many families decorate with it as Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus.

A plant-loving visitor named Joel Poinsett fell for this Mexican favorite, too. He worked in Mexico in the 1820s as a diplomat, someone who represents his country in another land. He sent some plants home to his greenhouse in South Carolina. Friends shared cuttings, and people began calling the plant a poinsettia in his honor.

Those cuttings began a journey that led to homes and stores everywhere. Today, growers raise poinsettias in greenhouses, because the bracts turn red only when nights grow long. So growers give the plants long, dark nights in fall, and the leaves turn red for December. Now it is the best-selling potted plant around Christmas in the United States, all from a Mexican shrub with "petals" that are really leaves!

Picture a Mexican hillside in the 1820s, where one shrub blazes red like a small bonfire. An American named Joel Poinsett admired its bright, star-shaped tops. Today we call it the poinsettia, and you have probably seen one glowing in a school or living room in December. But here is the surprise: those red "petals" are not petals at all!

If they are not petals, they must be leaves, special colored ones called bracts, which turn red when autumn nights grow long. The plant needs long, dark nights before its color shows, so it glows just in time for December. Its true flowers are the tiny yellow buds in the middle, so small you could easily miss them.

Even without noticing those tiny flowers, people in Mexico have admired the red bracts for hundreds of years. The Aztecs called the plant cuetlaxochitl and made a reddish dye from its bracts. Later, Mexican families named it flor de Nochebuena, or "Christmas Eve flower," because it turns red when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. One story tells of a girl with no gift for church on Christmas Eve, who picked green weeds that burst into red blossoms.

A flower that felt like a gift in Mexico soon became one in the United States, too. Poinsett, the first U.S. minister to Mexico, loved plants and sent cuttings home to his greenhouses in South Carolina. The plant was later named the poinsettia in his honor.

Poinsett grew his plants for the joy of it, but today greenhouse growers raise poinsettias by the millions. To get red bracts by Christmas, growers give the plants long, dark nights, just as autumn does outdoors. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the poinsettia is the best-selling potted flowering plant in the country. Next time you spot one, remember that its red stars are really leaves from a shrub that once blazed on a Mexican hillside.

Here is a puzzle: how can a plant look covered in bright red flowers when those red parts are not flowers at all? Picture a poinsettia on a windowsill in December, its burst of scarlet wrapped around dark green leaves. Look closely, though, and you will spot the real flowers: tiny yellow buds clustered in the center like a handful of sprinkles. To solve the mystery, we must travel to the warm hills of Mexico, where this plant grew wild long before it decorated a holiday table.

In those Mexican hills, a wild poinsettia is not a tidy pot plant but a shrub that can grow ten feet tall or more. Long ago, the Aztecs called it cuetlaxochitl and made a reddish dye from it. Today Mexicans call it flor de Nochebuena, or "Christmas Eve flower," because its leaves turn red just in time for the holiday. One well-loved legend tells of a girl who had no gift to bring to the Christmas Eve church service, so she gathered green weeds, and they bloomed red.

A plant with a story like that was bound to attract attention, and in the 1820s it caught the eye of Joel Poinsett. He was the first United States minister to Mexico, a diplomat sent to represent his country there. Poinsett also loved plants, so in 1828 he sent cuttings of the red-topped shrub home to South Carolina. Eventually the plant took his name, and December 12, the day he died in 1851, is now National Poinsettia Day.

If you celebrate National Poinsettia Day, you are really cheering for colorful leaves! Scientists call them bracts, which are special leaves that grow just below a plant's true flowers. Bracts stay green through the summer, but when autumn nights grow longer, the plant senses the extra darkness and they slowly turn red. That is why a poinsettia left under a lamp all night may stay green, fooled into thinking summer never ended.

Growers use that secret, too, covering their plants with darkness on a careful schedule so red ones are ready by December. Over the past century, a California family named Ecke helped turn poinsettias into holiday stars, even sending them to TV stations to brighten holiday shows. Today, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the poinsettia is the best-selling potted flowering plant in the United States. Not bad for a wild Mexican shrub whose famous red "flowers" are really leaves changing color as the nights grow long!

If you think the poinsettia is a fragile decoration that only survives on a cozy windowsill, think again. In the mountains of Mexico, it grows wild as a tough shrub that can stretch 10 feet tall or more, about as high as a basketball hoop. Its leaves are dark green and pointed, and at the branch tips burst those famous scarlet "petals" that look like giant stars. But here is the twist: those red parts are not petals at all. They are colorful leaves called bracts, and they are the plant's cleverest trick.

That trick caught people's eyes in Mexico centuries before anyone set a poinsettia on a doorstep in Ohio. The Aztecs, who called the plant cuetlaxochitl, used its bracts to make a reddish dye and its milky sap in medicine. Because it blooms in the winter, it became linked with Christmas, when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, and Mexicans named it flor de Nochebuena, or "Christmas Eve flower." A beloved legend tells of a girl named Pepita who had only roadside weeds to bring to church as a gift, until the weeds burst into red stars.

Pepita's weeds might have stayed a Mexican treasure if a curious American had not arrived with a passion for plants. Joel Roberts Poinsett of South Carolina was the first U.S. minister to Mexico, a kind of official ambassador, and he was also an enthusiastic amateur botanist. In the 1820s, he spotted the red-topped shrub and sent cuttings home to his greenhouses in South Carolina. Friends and gardeners shared the plants, and nurseries eventually began selling them under a name honoring him: poinsettia. Imagine having a plant named after you just for noticing it and carrying a few cuttings home!

Getting a poinsettia to show its famous color, though, takes more than a good greenhouse; it takes darkness. Poinsettias are short-day plants, which means their bracts turn from green to red only after weeks of long nights with roughly 12 hours of darkness. Outdoors, that happens as autumn deepens; in a greenhouse, growers pull dark cloth over the plants each evening to imitate it. The true flowers are the tiny yellow clusters in the middle of the bracts, easy to mistake for decorations. In a way, the plant is a living calendar, using the length of the night to announce that the holidays are near.

That living calendar has become big business, and a beloved tradition, in homes far from Mexico. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that poinsettias are the top-selling potted flowering plant in the country, with most sales in the weeks before Christmas. December 12 is even National Poinsettia Day, marking the date Joel Poinsett died in 1851. You may have heard the plant is deadly, but that is a myth; its sap can irritate skin or upset a stomach, so pets should not nibble. I find it remarkable that a wild shrub once used for dye now brightens millions of homes simply because the nights grow long.

Picture a plant so picky that it refuses to show its holiday colors unless it spends about twelve hours in the dark every night. That fussy performer is the poinsettia, and each December it glows in homes, schools, and stores like a cluster of bright red stars. Its big, pointed leaves fan out in layers, and some varieties come in white, pink, or even speckled shades. Most people call those colorful parts petals, but the truth is stranger than the mistake. How did a wild shrub from the hills of Mexico end up as one of the best-known symbols of Christmas?

The answer begins in Mexico, where poinsettias grow wild as shrubs that can reach ten feet or more, taller than a basketball hoop. Long before Europeans arrived, the Aztecs called the plant cuetlaxochitl and used its red leaves to make dye and its milky sap in medicine. Today Mexicans call it flor de Nochebuena, which means 'Christmas Eve flower.' Nochebuena is Christmas Eve, when many families share a late dinner and Christians attend services celebrating the birth of Jesus. Since the plant turns red in late fall and winter, its timing made it a natural partner for the holiday.

A partner that perfect might have stayed a local favorite if a curious traveler from South Carolina had not noticed it. Joel Roberts Poinsett was the first U.S. minister to Mexico, and he was also an enthusiastic plant collector. In the 1820s he sent cuttings of the red-leafed shrub home to his greenhouses, and he shared plants with fellow gardeners. Over time, people began calling the plant by his name, and the word poinsettia was born. Every December 12, National Poinsettia Day marks the date of Poinsett's death in 1851.

Poinsett's name stuck, but the plant's most famous feature has fooled plenty of people. Those bright red 'petals' are actually bracts, which are specialized leaves. The true flowers are the tiny yellow clusters in the middle, easy to miss beside all that color. Bracts change color because the plant tracks the length of the night: when it gets roughly twelve or more hours of darkness for several weeks, the green leaves turn red. Scientists call this reaction to day and night photoperiodism, and it explains why poinsettias color up as autumn nights grow long.

That fussy need for darkness was a puzzle for early growers, and solving it turned the poinsettia into big business. Early in the 1900s, the Ecke family of California began growing poinsettias, and over the years their plants traveled across the country. Growers learned to control light with shades and darkened greenhouses, so the red bracts would be ready right when shoppers wanted them in December. Today the poinsettia is the best-selling potted flowering plant in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with tens of millions sold each year. Most of them are bought in the weeks around Christmas.

Those December shoppers are joining a tradition that has traveled far from Mexican hillsides. In Mexico, poinsettias still brighten Nochebuena celebrations, while in the United States they often join wreaths, trees, and candles in winter decorating. Christians often place them in churches at Christmas, and families set them on tables and windowsills. Each place adds its own touches, yet the plant's red glow ties the celebrations together. Not bad for a wild shrub whose famous 'flowers' are really leaves that turned red in the dark!

In the late 1820s, Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States minister to Mexico, kept slowing his busy travel schedule to stare at a shrub. Its top leaves blazed scarlet, like little bonfires against the green hills. Poinsett loved plants almost as much as politics, so he had cuttings sent home to his greenhouse in South Carolina. That small act tied his name to the plant forever, which is why English speakers say poinsettia today. But did he actually discover it? Hardly, since people in Mexico had known this shrub for centuries, which makes its story a perfect case study in who gets the credit.

Long before Poinsett's cuttings crossed the border, the shrub already had names and jobs in Mexico. According to historians' accounts, the Aztecs called it cuetlaxochitl and used its red leaves for dye and its milky sap in medicine. In the wild, it is no tabletop decoration; it can grow into a tall shrub, sometimes more than ten feet high. Later, Spanish-speaking Mexicans named it flor de Nochebuena, or "Christmas Eve flower," because it reddens in the weeks leading up to December 24. By tradition, Franciscan friars in the 1600s used it in nativity processions, ceremonies in which Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Those processions are where a much-loved legend enters the story. In one version, a girl who had no gift for the church on Christmas Eve gathered humble weeds from the roadside, and when she laid them at the altar, they burst into red blooms. It is a moving tale, but historians treat it as a legend, because stories like this were usually written down long after the events they describe. Notice the difference between the two kinds of evidence: the legend explains why people love the plant, while records of dye, medicine, and gardens show what people actually did with it. Both have value, since a tradition can be true to what people feel even when its details cannot be checked.

Science, unlike legend, can be tested, and it delivers the plant's biggest surprise: those red "petals" are not petals at all. They are bracts, leaves that have changed color, and the true flowers are the tiny yellow clusters bunched in the middle. Have you ever wondered why the red never appears in summer? The plant responds to the length of the night, so as autumn nights grow longer, its top leaves slowly turn red. Growers say it needs long stretches of unbroken darkness, often twelve hours or more, for several weeks, so even a stray porch light can spoil the show. In other words, a poinsettia is less a plant that follows the calendar than one that reads the darkness.

Reading the darkness is exactly what greenhouse growers learned to control, and that skill turned a Mexican shrub into a December fixture in the United States. After Poinsett's cuttings spread among gardeners and nurseries in the 1800s, the plant was mostly a curiosity for people with greenhouses. In the 1900s, according to the company's own history, the Ecke family of southern California helped change that by sending free plants to television shows each December. By carefully managing light and temperature, growers could make the red color arrive right on time for Christmas. Poinsett died on December 12, 1851, and that date is now observed as National Poinsettia Day.

A day named for a plant is a sign of its popularity, and the numbers agree: according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, poinsettias are the top-selling potted flowering plant in the United States, with most sales in the weeks around Christmas. One stubborn rumor claims the plants are deadly poison, yet poison-control experts say a nibble may upset a stomach, and the sap can irritate skin, but serious harm is rare. It is another example of a claim that sounds convincing until it is checked against evidence. Its two names tell the story best: one honors an American diplomat who admired it, while the other, Nochebuena, keeps alive the Mexican Christmas Eves where its red leaves glowed long before he arrived.