Poinsettias are a holiday icon. Their crimson colors are so commonplace this time of year that they practically blend into the background. And once the holidays are over, they'll disappear like so many Christmas trees.
But these seemingly boring flowers actually hide a fascinating history. Poinsettias owe their holiday prevalence to some weird quirks of evolution — and one clever Southern California entrepreneur.
The poinsettia has been tied to Christmas for centuries, with the tradition starting not long after Catholicism reached the new world. There are roughly 100 poinsettia species native to Central America, and some of these flowering shrubs can grow more than 10 feet tall.
Europeans saw religious symbolism in these blood-red flowers that bloomed around the winter solstice. They weren’t the first, either; Aztecs also used poinsettias in their ceremonies. But those red flowers aren’t actually flowers at all. They’re leaves.
To explain, let’s take a quick ...
