poinsettia

/pɔɪnˈsɛd(i)ə/

/pɔɪnˈsɛtijə/

Other forms: poinsettias

The bright red potted plants you see everywhere at Christmastime are called poinsettias. This plant is so commonly associated with the holiday that it's also known as Christmas Star.

Poinsettias come from Mexico, and they get their name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the United States' First Minister to Mexico in the 1820s. Besides unsuccessfully attempting to acquire new U.S. territory from Mexico, Poinsett was an amateur botanist who admired the brilliant red and green Flor de Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve flowers. His success lay in introducing the poinsettia to North America.

Definitions of poinsettia

1. noun

   tropical American plant having poisonous milk and showy tapering usually scarlet petallike leaves surrounding small yellow flowers
   synonyms: Christmas flower, Christmas star, Euphorbia pulcherrima, Mexican flameleaf, lobster plant, painted leaf

   type of:

   spurge

   any of numerous plants of the genus Euphorbia; usually having milky often poisonous juice