Poinsettia.... a Christmas Indicator!

What is it?
The poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is a commercially important plant species of the diverse spurge family.It's a shrub or small tree, typically reaching a height of 0.6–4 metres. The plant bears dark green dentate leaves. The colored bracts—which are most often flaming red but can be orange, pale green, cream, pink, white, or marbled—are often mistaken for flower petals because of their groupings and colors, but are actually leaves.

Although poinsettias are perennials in warmer climates, most people are likely to see them used as a decorative houseplant over the winter holidays.

History

The plant's association with Christmas began in 16th-century Mexico, where legend tells of a girl, commonly called Pepita or Maria, who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday and was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar.

The star-shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red color represents the bloodsacrifice through the crucifixion of Jesus.

In Mexico and Guatemala is known as "Flor de Noche Buena", meaning Christmas Eve Flower
In Spain it is known as "Flor de Pascua or Pascua", meaning Easter flower.
In Hungarian, it is called "Santa Claus' Flower", and it's widely used as a Christmas decoration.
In Turkey, it is called "Atatürk's flower" because Atatürk, the founder of the Republic, liked this flower and made a significant contribution to its cultivation in Turkey.
In Greece it's called "Alexandrino".
In France it's known as "Etoiles de Noël" which means Shristmas Sstars.
In Egypt it's called "Bent El Consul" meaning the daughter of the ambassador.

Anthocyanine Structure - pH - Color

Special Power

This ponsettia plant can be used to make an indicator solution to test for pH or you can extract the red pigment from deeply colored poinsettias and use it to make your own pH paper strips to test whether a liquid is an acid or a base.
This is because the red leaves contain anthocyanin pigments, the structure of which subtly changes at varying pH.

8 > pH > 14 Yello-Green

7 > pH < 8 Blue

4 > pH < 7 Violet

3 > pH < 4 Colourless

0 > pH < 3 Red

References: wikipedia.com ~ compoundchem.com ~ chemistry.about.com

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