<p class="indent" style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px;">How did the poinsettia become the iconic Christmas flower?</span>

<p class="indent" style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The plant, named after the man who introduced it to the United States in the 19th century, is a holiday staple thanks largely to the work of one family in California.</span>

<p class="indent" style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;;line-height: 14.112px;">“German immigrant Albert Ecke and his family were headed to Fiji to open a health spa when they stopped in Los Angeles in 1900 and liked what they saw. They established a dairy farm and fruit orchard a few years later in the Eagle Rock area,” reads a Los Angeles Times story published Dec. 23, 2008.</span>

<p class="indent" style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“Ecke became intrigued by the red-and-green shrub that is native to Mexico and Central America and grew wild throughout the Southland. The Aztecs extracted dyes and a fever treatment from poinsettias, and the Spanish used it as a Christmas decoration. The plant was brought to the United States in the late 1820s by the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett.”</span>

<p class="indent" style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Ecke began large-scale cultivation of poinsettias and sold them from stands on the street. His son, Paul Ecke Sr., developed a technique to make the poinsettia larger and more hardy.</span>

<div><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 14.112px; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And Ecke Sr.’s son, Paul Ecke Jr., became an ardent promoter of the plant, the Times story says, “showering television networks with free poinsettias from Thanksgiving to Christmas” and plugging the plant on “The Tonight Show” and Bob Hope holiday programs.</span><br /></span></div><p class="indent" style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Poinsettia facts, from the University of Illinois Extension’s Poinsettia Pages website:</span>

<p style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“Poinsettias are part of the Euphorbiaceae or Spurge family. Botanically, the plant is known as Euphorbia pulcherrima.”</span>

<p style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“Many plants in the Euphorbiaceae family ooze a milky sap. Some people with latex allergies have had a skin reaction (most likely to the sap) after touching the leaves. For pets, the poinsettia sap may cause mild irritation or nausea. …”</span>

<p style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“Poinsettias are not poisonous. A study at Ohio State University showed that a 50-pound child would have to eat more than 500 leaves to have any harmful effect. Plus poinsettia leaves have an awful taste. … Eating the leaves can cause vomiting and diarrhea.”</span>

<p style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“The showy colored parts of poinsettias that most people think of as the flowers are actually colored bracts (modified leaves).”</span>

<p style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“Poinsettias have also been called the lobster flower and the flame-leaf flower, due to the red color.”</span>

<p style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">“In Mexico the poinsettia is a perennial shrub that will grow 10-15 feet tall.” “There are more than 100 varieties of poinsettias available today. Poinsettias come in colors like the traditional red, white, pink, burgundy, marbled and speckled.”</span>

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<p style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ONLINE: </span><span class="text_link link_wrap type_url" data-link-type="URL" data-link-target="http://extension.illinois.edu/poinsettia" style="cursor: pointer; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;">http://extension.illinois.</span> <span class="text_link link_wrap type_url" data-link-type="URL" data-link-target="http://extension.illinois.edu/poinsettia" style="cursor: pointer; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;">edu/poinsettia</span>.</span>

<p class="indent" style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">l</span>

<p style="color: rgb(74, 73, 73); font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, Frutiger, ‘Frutiger Linotype’, ‘Dejavu Sans’, ‘Helvetica Neue’, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.08px; line-height: 14.112px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by <span style="font-weight: bold;">ANDREW PERZO</span>, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email <span class="text_link link_wrap type_eml" data-link-target="informer@americanpress.com" data-link-type="EML" style="cursor: pointer; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;">informer@americanpress.com</span>.</span>