Poinsettia found in the center of each leaf bunch, and are called cyathia. The poinsettia is native to Mexico. It is found in the wild in deciduous tropical forests at moderate elevations from southern Sinaloa down the entire Pacific coast of Mexico to Chiapas and Guatemala. It is also found in the interior in the hot, seasonally dry forests of Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Chiapas. Reports of "E. pulcherrima" growing in the wild in Nicaragua and Costa Rica have yet to be confirmed by botanists. The Aztecs used the plant to produce red dye and as an antipyretic medication. In Nahuatl, the
Poinsettia them to display on air from Thanksgiving to Christmas. He also appeared on television programs like "The Tonight Show" and Bob Hope's Christmas specials to promote the plants. Until the 1990s, the Ecke family, who had moved their operation to Encinitas, California, in 1923, had a virtual monopoly on poinsettias owing to a technique that made their plants much more attractive. They produced a fuller, more compact plant by grafting two varieties of poinsettia together. A poinsettia left to grow on its own will naturally take an open, somewhat weedy look. The Eckes' technique made it possible to get every