Cuetlaxochitl ( Kwet La SHO Sheet) (‘plant that withers, mortal flower that perishes like all that is pure’) is the Nuhuatl name for what is comminly known in the West as a Poinsettia. It was long cultivated by the Aztecs long before the European colonisation of the Americas. The Aztecs (Mexica) used cuetlaxochitl for a variety of purposes, including decoration and the production of red and purple dyes, as well as for medicines derived from the plant’s milky white sap. The plants intense red flowers (bracts) represented to the Aztecs chalchitmatl, the precious liquid, the blood of sacrifices offered to the gods.
The timing of the annual bloom for wild cuetlaxochitl began the plant’s association with the Christmas season during the 16th century, when missionaries spread the Catholic faith through the indigenous communities of Mexico.
One such prevailing legend is that in the southwestern Mexican city of Taxco, Franciscan friars used the plant to decorate Nativity scenes. After the rosary and a litany were prayed, a piñata was broken, gifts exchanged and mass begun when a miracle occurred that frightened off many of the faithful. The flowers turned red. After that night, the flower was named flor de nochebuena, Flower of the Blessed Night.
Pepita
Another local legend tells of a young poor girl named Pepita, who was on her way to church on Christmas Eve. Realizing she had forgotten an offering, Pepita gathered a humble bouquet of roadside “weeds” as a gift for the newborn Jesus. When Pepita placed the bouquet at the base of the altar, the weeds burst into the colorful red blooms (bracts) of the cuetlaxochitl. The plant subsequently came to be called la flor de Nochebuena, literally “Flower of the Blessed Night,” or simply “the Christmas flower.”
Beautiful botanical gardens existed throughout the Aztec empire in pre-Hispanic times. Flowers and herbal plants were cultivated for their beauty and medicinal purposes. From October to mid-May, the cuetlaxochitl was admired and observed as it flowered like “birds aflame”.
Circa 1440–1446, the great Aztec leader Tlacalel and his half-brother Montezuma Ilhuicamina visited the most beautiful of these gardens in Oaxatcpec, in what is now the Mexican state of Morelos, and revitalised the cultivation of the cuetlaxochitl there as reminders of blood sacrifice.
The plant was appropriated in 1828 and brought to the United States by Joel Roberts Poinsett, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. After successfully cultivating the unique plant in his South Carolina greenhouse, Poinsett began sharing the plant with friends and colleagues who marvelled at the plant’s colourful transformation during the holiday season. The name has been to little affect beyond the US been rejected in favour of the Aztec name following attitudes towards Poinsett, who was a slave owner as well as responsible for the mass displacement and subsequent deaths of countless First Nations people known as ‘the trail of tears’. In America the idea holds that Cuetlaxochitl and its winter colours are where the colours of Christmas red and green originate from - that of course, would be contested knowledge in many parts of European culture from the winter berries of Holly to the evergreen boughs of yew, pine, fir and spruce trees. In the early 20th century. The popularity of the poinsettia boomed, thanks to the efforts of Paul Ecke Sr. A horticulturist based in California, Ecke developed techniques to grow poinsettias in pots indoors, making them more accessible and versatile. In 1923, he founded the Ecke Ranch, which would later become a significant supplier of poinsettias in the United States. The Cuetlaxochitl / Poinsettia was introduced to the UK in the 1960's and popularised in the 1980's.
Burciaga observes in 1979 that the Botanist, Dr Robert Faden of the Smithsonian Institute believes that the family of plants Euphobiacae to which the Cuetlaxochitl belongs might provide a cleaner, renewable substitute for gasoline and other fossil fuels.
This research continutes to this day with papers on the subejct being published even in the last month. Many fuel plants have been reported in this genus, providing biomass for the production of biocrude, bioethanol and other bioenergy resources. Conversely in addition to its properties in providing a potential future for the petro-chemical industry, this species retains important medicinal value, with its latex being traditionally used for the treatment of cancer, asthma, arthritis, rheumatism.
In considering Cuetlaxochitl in its relationship to seasonality, of Sun and harvest based sacrifice, to the miraculous event beheld by Franciscan Friars, to the gradual USA/UK osmosis popularisation of the Mexican plant in the United Kindom, where it must be held in 12 days of darkness in order to bloom red (or one of the many genetically modified colours it has been cultivated to bloom in) it demonstrates the multiple histories and connections through which we behold difference in seasonal relationships.
Bibliography
José Antonio Burciaga. 1993. Drink Cultura : Chicanismo. Santa Barbara, California: Capra Press.
Wei, Z., Feng, C., Xu, J. et al. Chromosome-level genome assembly of Euphorbia tirucalli(Euphorbiaceae), a highly stress-tolerant oil plant. Sci Data 11, 658 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03503-w