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PHOTOGRAPH BY CARRIE THOMPSON, ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
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Long before a clever marketer turned poinsettias (above) into a Christmas staple, the Aztec and Maya celebrated the colorful shrub for its medicinal value. “The Aztec called the plant cuetlaxochitl (brilliant flower), and the Maya referred to it as k’alul wits (ember flower),” an expert tells Nat Geo.
So how did the rugged poinsettia become a favorite holiday flower? Franciscan missionaries, who arrived in Mexico in the 16th century, eventually began setting up elaborate manger scenes at Christmastime. By the time Joel Poinsett, an American diplomat and amateur botanist, arrived in Mexico in the 1820s, the plants were a common holiday sight.
He sent some home to Charleston ... and a star was born.
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