WEBVTT - How Do Poinsettias Work?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Volbom Here. The poinsettia is the plant equivalent of

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<v Speaker 1>Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You. You

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps don't even remember it exists until the first day

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<v Speaker 1>you walk into a store in November, and suddenly it

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<v Speaker 1>is the holiday season. You're positively bombarded with it until January,

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<v Speaker 1>at which point both disappear again for another ten months,

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<v Speaker 1>making you wonder what they get up to while they're

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<v Speaker 1>laying in wait. But just like Mariah's popular Christmas bop,

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<v Speaker 1>point setias are economically important. They're the highest selling potted

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<v Speaker 1>plant in the world during the holiday shopping season the

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<v Speaker 1>six weeks leading up to Christmas. Some seventy million point

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<v Speaker 1>setia is worth some two hundred and fifty million dollars

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<v Speaker 1>are sold in the United States alone, and they're about

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<v Speaker 1>twice as popular in Europe. Point Setias were cultivated by

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<v Speaker 1>peoples within the Triple Alliance of what's now Central Mexico.

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<v Speaker 1>That is, the empire of three main city states now

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<v Speaker 1>often called the Aztec Empire, though that name was applied

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<v Speaker 1>retroactively and a little confusingly. The flowers didn't actually grow

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<v Speaker 1>in the capital city of pinoch Titlan and now Mexico City,

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<v Speaker 1>but reportedly Triple Alliance rulers imported thousands of plants every

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<v Speaker 1>winter from warmer lower elevations for use as an ornamental,

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<v Speaker 1>and also used different extracts from the plant as medicine

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<v Speaker 1>and as a reddish purple fabric dye. In these centuries

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<v Speaker 1>since it's been called the lobster flower, the flame leaf flower,

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<v Speaker 1>the Star of Love, and the flower of the Holy Night.

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<v Speaker 1>A butt Poinsettia is probably the weirdest name of all,

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<v Speaker 1>because it's just a shout out to the American diplomat

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<v Speaker 1>who's credited with being the first to bring them back

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<v Speaker 1>to the US from Mexico in the eighteen hundreds. Joel

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<v Speaker 1>Roberts Pointset was the first US minister to Mexico, and

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<v Speaker 1>as an amateur botanist, is said to have sent some

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<v Speaker 1>cuttings back to his home in South Carolina from southern

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<v Speaker 1>Mexican go in eighteen twenty eight. Though there's no irrefutable

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<v Speaker 1>proof of this, what is known is that the plant

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<v Speaker 1>was on display in Philadelphia in eighteen twenty nine. Associated

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<v Speaker 1>with Poinsett's name, it was an immediate hit and was

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<v Speaker 1>henceforth known as the poinsettia in the English speaking United

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<v Speaker 1>States and parts of Europe. A note that pointsett was

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<v Speaker 1>not well liked in Mexico. The term points at tismo

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<v Speaker 1>is sometimes still used there today to describe an arrogant

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<v Speaker 1>person who oversteps their authority at any rate. In the

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen twenties, the Eki family of southern California started farming poinsettias,

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<v Speaker 1>and they tirelessly pushed them as a symbol of the

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<v Speaker 1>Christmas season. Today, around seventy percent of the point Setia

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<v Speaker 1>plants you buy in the United States come from the

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<v Speaker 1>Eki ranch, and point Setia care is their lifeblood, although

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<v Speaker 1>many of us only encounter these plants in a potted

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<v Speaker 1>and possibly disposable form in December of Poinsettias are a

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<v Speaker 1>perennial winter flowering shrub with milky sap and branches so

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<v Speaker 1>long that they sometimes look like vines. In the mid

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<v Speaker 1>elevation regions of Mexico and Central America where they're from,

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<v Speaker 1>or gardens where they're successfully grown, they can reach over

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<v Speaker 1>ten feet or three meters tall and will die down

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<v Speaker 1>but come back every year. The big, showy red or

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<v Speaker 1>white or pink flowers that we're used to seeing aren't

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<v Speaker 1>actually the poinsettia's flowers at all, but modified leaves called bracts.

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<v Speaker 1>The actual flowers are those small yellow buds in the

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<v Speaker 1>middle of the colorful bracts. When you buy a poinsettia

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<v Speaker 1>in a store, it already comes sporting its brightly colored,

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<v Speaker 1>fancy bracts, and you might have no idea how hard

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<v Speaker 1>it was to get them there. One Fritz Bar, the

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<v Speaker 1>author of the nineteen thirty seven guide Fritz Bar's Commercial Floriculture,

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<v Speaker 1>A Practical Manual for the Retail Grower, describe the delicate

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<v Speaker 1>and finicky poinsettia thus sleep. Perhaps no other plant or

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<v Speaker 1>flower we handle during Christmas week is more short lived,

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<v Speaker 1>Wilt's quicker, or it is more disappointing to those who

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<v Speaker 1>are it. Yet when the next Christmas comes around, there

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<v Speaker 1>comes again the same demand for poinsettias, and the disappointments

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<v Speaker 1>of a year ago are all forgotten. Over time, floor

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<v Speaker 1>culturists overcame some of these problems, but until the mid

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen fifties, growing poinsettias and getting them into the hands

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<v Speaker 1>of holiday revelers in relatively good shape was a real trick.

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<v Speaker 1>That was until somebody realized the poinsettias need just one

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<v Speaker 1>thing to turn their green bracts red, pink, or white,

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<v Speaker 1>total darkness. In order to induce your poinsettia plant to

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<v Speaker 1>create flower buds and to change the color of its

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<v Speaker 1>leaves from green in time for Christmas, it must be

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<v Speaker 1>kept in complete darkness for sixteen hours a day. The

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<v Speaker 1>withholding of light prevents the plant from producing chlorophyll, which

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<v Speaker 1>is what makes plant parts green. This lets the bracts

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<v Speaker 1>change to whatever shade of red, pink, white, or orange

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<v Speaker 1>they develop, depending on the variety of the poinsettia, and

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<v Speaker 1>there are about one hundred types grown in the US.

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<v Speaker 1>In order to make that happen, you need to subject

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<v Speaker 1>your plant to about two months of sixteen hours of

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<v Speaker 1>uninterrupted darkness per day, alternated with eight hours of bright light. Oh,

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<v Speaker 1>which means that if you were looking for those bright

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<v Speaker 1>colors this holiday season and you're listening to this episode

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<v Speaker 1>as it comes out, you're out of luck, though you

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<v Speaker 1>might be just in time for a showy Valentine's Day.

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<v Speaker 1>To achieve bright December foliage start somewhere around September twenty first,

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<v Speaker 1>right around the fall equinox. Pull your point setia out

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<v Speaker 1>of its sunny window after eight hours and move it

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<v Speaker 1>into sixteen hours of uninterrupted darkness like put it under

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<v Speaker 1>a box if necessary. During the dark period, the plant

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<v Speaker 1>cannot receive even the slightest bit of light at any time.

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<v Speaker 1>You can just continue this around Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, keep

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<v Speaker 1>your point stetia in bright light or the full sun

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<v Speaker 1>of a sunny window, not keeping the potting soil moist

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<v Speaker 1>or adding excess water, but watering it when the soil

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<v Speaker 1>is dry to the touch. Point setias prefer temperatures around

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<v Speaker 1>or above sixty five degrees fahrenheit that's about eighteen degrees

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<v Speaker 1>celsius boom from December until about April. At this point,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a good idea to cut your pointetia down to

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<v Speaker 1>a three to two eight inch stem that's about eight

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<v Speaker 1>to twenty centimeters and let it regrow, treating it normally

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<v Speaker 1>until the next year. But wait, are these plants poisonous?

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<v Speaker 1>One common urban legend about point cetias is that they're

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<v Speaker 1>toxic to people and animals. However, this seems to stem

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<v Speaker 1>from a single unfounded story that starts circulating around nineteen nineteen.

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<v Speaker 1>Maybe there's some crossover with stories about easter lilies, which

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<v Speaker 1>are in fact very toxic to cats. In the Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>exhaustive studies have found that all parts of the poinsettia

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<v Speaker 1>are safe for incidental exposure. A one study showed that

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<v Speaker 1>a fifty pound or twenty five kilo child would have

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<v Speaker 1>to eat over one pound or half a kilo of

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<v Speaker 1>poinsettia leaves between five hundred and six hundred leaves the

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<v Speaker 1>toxicity to become a problem. However, they don't taste very good,

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<v Speaker 1>and the child who ate them would probably get a

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<v Speaker 1>tummy ache long before they were poisoned. However, there is

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<v Speaker 1>an exception here. Pointsettias contain a milky sap that can

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<v Speaker 1>set off a latex allergy in people with severe latex sensitivities.

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<v Speaker 1>Just being in the same room with the point Cetia

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<v Speaker 1>plant might set off a rash or other symptoms, though

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<v Speaker 1>case reports have shown that these will resolve after normal

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<v Speaker 1>treatment with antihistamines. Be safe out there and enjoy your

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<v Speaker 1>bract based holiday decorations responsibly. Today's episode is based on

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<v Speaker 1>the article Poinsettia, the Mexican Christmas flower that blooms in

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<v Speaker 1>the dark on HowStuffWorks dot Com written by Jesslyn Shields.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with hostuffworks

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<v Speaker 1>dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. For more

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