Editing Poinsettia (section)

==Cultivation==
[[File:Euphorbia_pulcherrima_in_Viherlandia.jpg|thumb|Euphorbia pulcherrima in Viherlandia|alt=Many euphorbia pulcherrima flowers, all the same height, growing in a very large cylindrical greenhouse with white walls. A number of growing lights hang from the ceiling.]]
The [[Aztecs]] were the first to cultivate poinsettias.<ref name="CSU">{{cite report|url=https://mountainscholar.org/bitstream/handle/10217/183252/AEXT_074122009fs.pdf?sequence=16|id=7.412|title=Poinsettias|publisher=Colorado State University Extension|access-date=14 November 2019|date=November 2009}}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Cultivation in the US began when diplomat Joel Roberts Poinsett sent some of the plants back to his greenhouses in South Carolina in the 1820s. Specific details about its spread from there are largely unverifiable, but it was exhibited at the [[Pennsylvania Horticultural Society]]'s 1829 [[Philadelphia Flower Show]] by Colonel Robert Carr.<ref name="Taylor">{{cite journal |url=https://www.actahort.org/chronica/pdf/ch5103.pdf#page=23 |title=The Poinsettia: History and Transformation |journal=Chronica Horticulturae |volume=51 |issue=3 |year=2011 |pages=23–27 |first1=Judith M. |last1=Taylor |first2=Roberto G. |last2=Lopez |first3=Christopher J. |last3=Currey |first4=Jules |last4=Jan |access-date=November 14, 2019 |archive-date=November 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127120648/https://www.actahort.org/chronica/pdf/ch5103.pdf#page=23 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Carr described it as "a new ''[[Euphorbia]]'' with bright scarlet bracts or floral leaves, presented to the Bartram Collection by Mr. Poinsett, United States Minister of Mexico."<ref name="Taylor" />

The poinsettia is the world's most economically important potted plant.<ref name="Trejo">{{cite journal|doi=10.3732/ajb.1200072|pmid=22763354|title=Poinsettia's wild ancestor in the Mexican dry tropics: Historical, genetic, and environmental evidence|journal=American Journal of Botany|volume=99|issue=7|pages=1146–1157|year=2012|last1=Trejo|first1=L.|last2=Feria Arroyo|first2=T. P.|last3=Olsen|first3=K. M.|last4=Eguiarte|first4=L. E.|last5=Arroyo|first5=B.|last6=Gruhn|first6=J. A.|last7=Olson|first7=M. E.|s2cid=23653130}}</ref> Each year in the US, approximately 70 million poinsettias are sold in a period of six weeks, at a value of US$250 million.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://virtualfieldday.ifas.ufl.edu/poinsettias.shtml |title=Poinsettias |website=Florida Virtual Field Day |publisher=University of Florida IFAS |access-date=7 December 2019 |date=2 July 2014}}</ref> In Puerto Rico, where poinsettias are grown extensively in greenhouses, the industry is valued at $5 million annually.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1094/PD-90-1459A|pmid=30780920|title=First Report of Wilt and Stem Canker of Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) Caused by Phytophthora nicotianae in Puerto Rico|journal=Plant Disease|volume=90|issue=11|pages=1459|year=2006|last1=Estevez De Jensen|first1=C.|last2=Abad|first2=G.|last3=Roberts|first3=P.|last4=Rosa|first4=E.|doi-access=free}}</ref> There are over 100 cultivated varieties of poinsettia that have been [[Plant breeders' rights|patented]] in the US.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/newsletter/inventors-eye/patently-poinsettia |title=Patently Poinsettia |website=US Patent and Trademark Office |first=Elizabeth |last=Dougherty |date=10 June 2016 |access-date=8 December 2019 |archive-date=December 8, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208191529/https://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/newsletter/inventors-eye/patently-poinsettia |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Poinsettia Facts"/><ref name="UoVE">{{cite web |url=http://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/points.htm |title=Fun Facts About Poinsettia |publisher=[[University of Vermont]] Extension, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences |work=Perry's Perennial Pages |access-date=May 7, 2014 |author=Perry, Leonard |archive-date=September 14, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190914050502/http://pss.uvm.edu/ppp/articles/points.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

To produce extra axillary buds that are necessary for plants containing multiple flowers, a [[phytoplasma]] infection—whose symptoms include the [[cell growth|proliferation]] of axillary buds—is used.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lee |first1=I.-M. |last2=Klopmeyer |first2=M. |last3=Bartoszyk |first3=I. M. |last4=Gundersen-Rindal |first4=D. E. |last5=Chou |first5=T.-S. |last6=Thomson |first6=K. L. |last7=Eisenreich |first7=R. |title=Phytoplasma induced free-branching in commercial poinsettia cultivars |journal=Nature Biotechnology |date=1997 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=178–182 |doi=10.1038/nbt0297-178 |pmid=9035146 |s2cid=11228113 }}</ref> The discovery of the role phytoplasmas play in the growth of axillary buds is credited to Ing-Ming Lee of the [[USDA]] [[Agricultural Research Service]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Kaplan |first=Kim |url=http://blogs.usda.gov/2015/12/01/poinsettias-helping-an-icon-to-bloom-at-the-right-time/#more-62176 |title=Poinsettias: Helping an Icon to Bloom at the Right Time |publisher=USDA |date=December 1, 2015 |access-date=November 27, 2017 |archive-date=March 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301152721/http://blogs.usda.gov/2015/12/01/poinsettias-helping-an-icon-to-bloom-at-the-right-time/#more-62176 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===American industry===
Albert Ecke emigrated from Germany to [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]] in 1900, opening a dairy and orchard in the [[Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California|Eagle Rock]] area. He became intrigued by the plant and sold them from street stands. His son, Paul Ecke, developed the grafting technique, but it was the third generation of Eckes, Paul Ecke Jr., who was responsible for advancing the association between the plant and Christmas.<ref name=lat/>

Besides changing the market from mature plants shipped by rail to [[cutting (plant)|cutting]]s sent by air, he sent free plants to television stations for 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.<ref name=lat>{{cite news |url=http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-poinsettia23-2008dec23,0,899159.story |title=The bloom is off the poinsettia business |first=Mike |last=Anton |date=December 23, 2008 |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=December 28, 2008}}</ref>

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 seedling to branch, resulting in a bushier plant.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://site.extension.uga.edu/cherokee/2015/12/poinsettia-background-on-a-christmas-tradition/ |title=Cultivating Cherokee County |website=UGA Extension |access-date=8 December 2019 |date=10 December 2015 |first=Joan |last=McFather}}</ref>

In the late 1980s, university researcher John Dole discovered the grafting method (grafting rarer densely-branched cultivars onto more common sparsely-branched cultivars) – previously known only to the Eckes – and published it.<ref>A GRAFT-TRANSMISSIBLE FACTOR IN EUPHORBIA PULCHERRIMA CAUSING PERMANENT CHANGES IN BRANCHING AND ANOTHER MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS J. Dole, H. Wilkins, ISHS Acta Horticulturae 226, 1987, https://www.actahort.org/books/226/226_34.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211126235942/http://www.actahort.org/books/226/226_34.htm |date=November 26, 2021 }}</ref> This allowed competitors to flourish, particularly those using low-cost labor in [[Latin America]]. The Ecke family's business, now led by Paul Ecke III, decided to stop producing plants in the US, but as of 2008, they still served about 70 percent of the domestic market and 50 percent of the worldwide market.<ref name=lat/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2017/12/22/573046507/how-poinsettias-became-synonymous-with-christmas |title=How Poinsettias Became Synonymous With Christmas |website=NPR |date=22 December 2017 |access-date=8 December 2019 |first1=Ari |last1=Shapiro |first2=Michel |last2=Martin}}</ref>

===Diseases===
{{Main|List of poinsettia diseases}}
Poinsettias are susceptible to several diseases, mostly fungal, but also bacterial and parasitic. Conditions that promote poinsettia propagation also favor certain diseases. Fungal diseases affecting greenhouse poinsettia operations include ''[[Pythium]]'' root rot, ''[[Rhizoctonia solani|Rhizoctonia]]'' root and stem rot, [[Thielaviopsis basicola|black root rot]], [[Sphaceloma poinsettiae|scab]], [[powdery mildew]], and ''[[Botrytis cinerea|Botrytis]]'' blight. Bacterial diseases include [[bacterial soft rot]] and bacterial [[canker]], while a viral disease is ''[[Poinsettia mosaic virus]]''. Infection by poinsettia branch-inducing phytoplasma is actually desirable, as it keeps the plants shorter with more flowers. It is the first known [[phytoplasma]] that has economically advantageous effects.<ref>{{cite report |url=https://plantpathology.ca.uky.edu/files/ppfs-gh-06.pdf |title=Plant Pathology Fact Sheet: Poinsettia Diseases |first1=John R. |last1=Hartman |first2=Cheryl A. |last2=Kaiser |date=2010 |publisher=Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service |id=PPFS-GH-06}}</ref>
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