Majolica Christmas Poinsettia dessert plate Red nose

The Poinsettia is from Central America.

An Aztec legend tells that this plant was born after a heartbroken goddess after a love affair. A few drops of her blood fell to the ground and gave birth to a plant with bright red bracts, the Cuetlaxochitl. The Amerindians used the Poinsettia for dyes and the milky sap in their traditional pharmacopeia.

In the first third of the 19th century, an American ambassador, doctor and passionate botanist, Joel Poinsett, fell under the spell of an almost 4 meters high bush. He brought the first Christmas stars to his country circa the 1820s.

A German botanist, Alexander von Humboldt, noticed this plant and catalogued it in 1834, giving it its botanical name Euphorbia Pulcherrima. It is in honor of Poinsett that Euphorbia Pulcherrima (the superb Euphorbia) was named Poinsettia and that the American Congress declared December 12, the day of his death, as National Poinsettia Day.