The beautiful bright red and green of the poinsettia heralds the coming of the holidays as much as carols and Christmas trees. And, while poinsettias are grown commercially in all 50 states, San Diego County stands unchallenged as the poinsettia capital.

According to the growers at Paul Ecke Ranch in Encinitas, 80 percent of all flowering poinsettias in the world originate in the greenhouses in this coastal city. The Ecke Ranch ships several million cuttings to growers in more than 50 countries, and prepares thousands of potted flowering plants for Christmas, sold to wholesale and retail florist outlets in California, Arizona and Nevada. In fact, the poinsettia is quite possibly the most popular potted plant in the world today.

The poinsettia is a native of Mexico, where during the 14th through 16th centuries the ancient Aztecs had a variety of uses for its sap including dye production and fever control. The plant was introduced into the United States in the early 1800s by its namesake, Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first ambassador to Mexico. An avid botanist, Poinsett found the beautiful shrub with large red flowers growing next to the road. He took cuttings from the plant and brought them back to his greenhouse in South Carolina in 1828. Although Poinsett had an exceptional career as a United States congressman and ambassador, his most well known accomplishment remains the introduction of the poinsettia to the United States.

Fast forward to the early 1900s, when the Ecke family began production, growing poinsettias outdoors for use as landscape plants and cut flowers. The poinsettia's annual blooming cycle during the winter, and near the holiday season inspired Paul Ecke with the notion that this would make an ideal holiday flower. Over the years, the Ecke family's diligent cultivation and promotion of the flower nurtured the popularity of the flower making it the holiday symbol that it is today.

Today, the Paul Ecke Ranch cultivates a wide variety of poinsettias from minis to large trees that produce a variety of blooms and an array of different colors. Red is still the most traditional and best selling color, but a wide variety of other colors including pink, white, coral and salmon are gaining in popularity. Another recent Ecke introduction, Plum Pudding, is the first purple poinsettia.

Many people don't realize that the beautifully colored petals really aren't flower petals at all, but are actually colored bracts, or modified leaves. The yellow centers are the actual flowers. Additionally, the prevalent belief that poinsettias are poisonous to humans and domestic animals is erroneous. Studies conducted by Ohio State University in cooperation with the Society of American Florists debunked that myth at least at levels that could occur at home. In fact, the poinsettia was even included in a 1992 list of houseplants most helpful in removing pollutants from indoor air. So, not only is the poinsettia a safe and beautiful addition to your holiday decor, it can even help keep your indoor air clean!