The beautiful poinsettia grows tall and is like a bush in some southern climates. It originated in Mexico. There, as here, they get their lovely red “bracts” in the winter. These bracts look like flowers but are actually part of the leaf system. In northern climates, small poinsettia plants are grown in greenhouses and are familiar to us as potted plants during the winter. They are the most popular potted plant sold in the United States, with millions being sold each year, mostly in the six weeks before Christmas.
While it looks rather scrawny when it grows in its natural habitat, one family in the United States discovered how to graft poinsettias to produce the lovely plants that they then sold as the popular potted plants we know today. They made it popular by marketing it as “Christmas flowers.” They were the only ones who knew the secret of how to graft the poinsettia for many years, and only in the 1990s was a university researcher able to discover how to do this and make it more widely known.
The brightly colored group of bracts has the actual flowers growing in the center on the bract stems. The male flowers, bearing pollen, appear first. These flowers stand erect and are without petals like ordinary flowers display, but they have something special that ordinary flowers do not have. On the side of each flower a yellow, funnel-shaped “honey jar” grows, gradually filling with sweet nectar. This attracts insects to the plant, which help to pollinate it. The female flower appears later, when the male flowers start to die. This is the way the Lord has ordered this plant to reproduce to avoid pollinating within the same plant.
One interesting thing about poinsettias is that they need about 14 to 16 hours each day of complete darkness, for six weeks, in order to produce their colorful bracts.
Isn’t it interesting that the Lord has made this brightly colored plant to need darkness in order to become the lovely plant that brightens dark homes in the winter? This makes us think of the Lord Jesus, and how He suffered for three terrible hours in darkness, when the sun was darkened in the middle of the day. It was then that He paid the price to be able to forgive our sins, to bring light and love into the lives of those who believe on Him. As we see in our opening verses, He is the light of the world, and He tells those who believe on Him that we are the light of the world, as well. May we who know His love shine for Him who suffered so much for us, until He comes!
Did You Know?
Poinsettias are the most popular potted flowering plant in the United States.
Messages of God’s Love 7/7/2024