Some may have considered him a snob. At his estate he invited only most elite crowd ... The most charming, beautiful, witty, and intelligent. One reference claimed he was the most versatile and cosmopolitan gentleman of his time and it was a prestigious source. Born in South Carolina in 1779 he was educated in England and the United States, studying, apparently, a broad curricula. At an early age, thirty-one, he was sent to Buenes Aires and Chile to establish diplomatic relations, the first between our country and those South American nations. In 1816 he became a state legislator for South Carolina but ran for Congress just two years later, the House of Representatives, the legislative branch. In 1822 he was sent to Mexico on a mission for his government where he set up the quality standards that marked U.S. Embassy relations for years to come. While in Mexico he wrote a book about the ancient nation which was sought after by Americans because they knew little about their southern neighbor. He had resigned his Congressional seat in 1825 to serve and explore Mexico for the next four years. Returning to his properties in Charleston, S.C. he entertained, did business and became deeply interested in the nation’s politics. He energetically opposed John C. Calhoun’s agenda and organized the Unionist Party. For his labors he was appointed by President Martin Van Buren to a cabinet post, Secretary of War, in which office he served “with distinction” for four years. By 1841 he retired to his estate where he lived the “good life” hob-nobbing with the “in-crowd.” During that period rumors were being heard, however secret or subtle, that the Southern states were considering secession from the Union of States. He avidly opposed that and worked feverishly to stop the movement by forming Anti-Secessionist clubs. He believed it would be tragic, short-sighted for the United States to divide. Another of his notable achievements was becoming founder of the National Institute of Science and Useful Arts, the prototype, the forerunner of the Smithsonian Institute. As you can see, this statesman had a wide variety of interests and experiences so it wouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that this influential and intellectual gentleman was deeply immersed in promoting agriculture in the new nation and in botany. He experimented with methods to improve farming and labored long and deeply with the limited techniques of the day. During his missions to foreign countries and travels abroad, he explored each of those country’s “outback” where he took cuttings of plants, trees, shrubs, returning them back to the States where he used his gardens and probably greenhouses to see what would result. One of those that we might think of as an “exotic” was the Poinsettia which grows as a wild shrub in Mexico and Central America, its red or white eye-catching colors brightening our winter hours. Poinsettias have become a multi-million dollar business throughout the world annually a the holiday season of the year. In Spanish they are known as the flor de nochebuena ... The flower of Christmas Eve. How exactly it became connected with Christmas is not found but as the cuttings are begun in March to grow throughout the hot months, it being a tropical plant, it may be that their prime time comes at the holy season. Much experimentation has taken place during the nearly two hundred years since it was brought from Mexico in 1828 and we have Joel Poinsett to thank for the deep red and all the varigated hues today’s “flower” has become. The flower was named for the statesman to honor his many accomplishments. (Don’t forget that last ‘I’ at the end, poinsett-i-a.) Poinsettias are deep red, pink, yellow, blue, purple and variations in between besides the native specimen in red and white. And those colored appendages are NOT, repeat NOT the flower, they are bracts like the green “leaves” below. The flowers are actually the teensie yellow miniscule objects in the center. (The leaf fairy dominated over the flower fairy the day the Poinsettia was invented!) Although the Poinsettia grows wild in its native tropical lands, it is therefore not uncommon. In fact, it is one of the most prolific of families in the botanical world ... The Spruge family, not especially a pretty word for such a striking plant. Spruges come in plants, trees, shrubs and show their faces in fields to push out crops. You see them everywhere now from Canada to Illinois to Maryland. There’s the leafy spurge, cypress spurge, gray spurge, etc. Although they are all different in size and shape and color—green, yellow, white and so forth—they are designed basically the same ... Either stamen or pistils rise on supporting cups and there are bracts that fool you into thinking they are the flowers. The Cypress Spurge was brought to America at an early time as a graveyard decoration, it resembling the Cypress tree greens used since ancient, ancient times to cover graves because the bow lasted such a long time. When they escaped from the bouquet to edge the cemetery. There again they were satisfying decoration. Low growing and oh, so, beautiful in autumn, when the needles turn every hue imaginable ... From maroon, deep red, blue, purple, to orangey yellow, the shimmering of the individual needle making it seem as though a cloud of color had drifted over the landscape. Perhaps there are more cemeteries Back East with this feature. There are at least thirty-seven Spurge common throughout our area, one of the most recognizable is the is the Snow-on-the-Mountain. Yes, Poinsettia and Snow-on-the-Mountain are related. Its familiar green centered “leaf” bordered all around with white, indeed, must have reminded the men on the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) that the white covering the hillsides and mountain sides seemed as though snow had fallen. When it was discovered that the Spurge, Snow-on-the-Mountain, spread at the least suggestion of hospitality, it was predicted that it would follow the railroad tracks Back East and become a garden favorite which, of course, it did. Even though the Snow-on-the-Mountain fills in many an empty spot it will quickly escape into the lawn and places it’s unwanted. And here is the down side of the Euphorbia, the absolute downside, Poinsettia and Snow-on-the-Mountain are both POISONOUS. Don’t let children play with them or make bouquets. Their stems carry dangerous, acrid, milky juices that burn the most sensitive and can cause death. An example given told of a woman making a bouquet of Snow-on-the-Mountain to accent some pink geraniums. It was a hot day and, perspiring, she would wipe her face with her hands. Shortly, her face began to burn and swell and by the next morning she was covered with “burns” where the juices from the plant had touched her skin. Native Americans did use the juice, after much consideration and knowledge, as a cathartic and emetic. Tiny amounts were used to rid them of warts, carbuncles and leprosies. Joel Poinsett died in 1851, a man of many talents and interests. Was he ever bothered by the milky juices from the Poinsettia? Did he ever mention that drawback of the flower if he knew? We don’t know but you remember that the Poinsettia has its downside as well as its cheerful character.
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