<i>Euphorbia pulcherrima</i> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poinsettia" class="extiw" title="w:Poinsettia">Poinsettia</a>)
<p><i>Euphorbia pulcherrima</i>, commonly known as Poinsettia, is a species of flowering plant indigenous to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico" class="extiw" title="w:Mexico">Mexico</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America" class="extiw" title="w:Central America">Central America</a>. The name "poinsettia" is after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Roberts_Poinsett" class="extiw" title="w:Joel Roberts Poinsett">Joel Roberts Poinsett</a>, the first United States Minister to Mexico, who introduced the plant into the US in 1828. It is also called the Atatürk flower.
</p><p><i>Euphorbia pulcherrima</i> is a shrub or small tree, typically reaching a height of 0.6 to 4 m (2 to 16 ft). The plant bears dark green dentate leaves that measure 7 to 16 cm (3 to 6 inches) in length. The colored bracts—which are most often flaming red but can be orange, pale green, cream, pink, white or marbled—are actually leaves. The colors come from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/photoperiodism" class="extiw" title="w:photoperiodism">photoperiodism</a>, meaning that they require darkness for 12 hours at a time to change color. At the same time, the plants need a lot of light during the day for the brightest color.
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Because of their groupings and colors, laymen often think the bracts are the flower petals of the plant. In fact, the flowers are grouped within the small yellow structures found in the center of each leaf bunch, and they are called cyathia.
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jkadavoor" title="User:Jkadavoor">Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India</a>
CC BY-SA 4.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>