The word cuetlaxochitl is a Nahuatl word. Today within Mexico there are a few different ways people pronounce it, including kwet-la-sho-shee, kwet-la-so-chee, and kwet-la-so-chittel. For the word poinsettia, many pronounce it how it's spelled - poinsett-ee-ah. But others, especially in the US, say poinsett-ah. (how I say it in the piece!) How do you say these words? -Ranjani
Ive literally never heard the nahuatl wprd here in Mexico. Even in rural regions that are primarily nahuatl. We just use "Nochebuena". Thats interesting
Nochebuenas (as we call them in central Mexico) are really common in house gardens. Both of my grandmothers had them and the change of colors of the leaves was a big thing every year when I was growing up and spending time with them while they took care of their gardens. Its a beautiful part of winter in México and it’s great to know more about it’s story in the US. Great piece!!
@@laattardo nah, not at all. We mexicans can’t expect for americans to call them nochebuenas or cuetlaxochitl. At the end, it’s just a plant, an important plant in mexican culture, but just a plant.
@@laattardo we (my mexican family) didn’t even know it was named after a man with questionable ethics, we just always called it nochebuenas and kept it pushing. If it ever gets renamed to something else, great, if not oh well. It’s just like everything else named after/in honor of questionable people (columbus day, thanksgiving, universities/colleges named after confederate generals, etc), not much you can do about it, and most people calling it poinsettias aren’t in alignment of the dude’s views anyway.
As a mexiquense I like both nahuatl and Spanish names, never called them poinsettia, but I would be happy if as minimum english speakers use the Spanish version, or put it aside the english name, many don't even know where it comes from! And I think origins are important.
The red "leaves" are called bracts, to differentiate them from the normal green ones. They serve to attract pollinators, as the real flowers are discreet. Here in Brazil it grows like a sparse and branched bush, which loses its vigor with age. Needs to be pruned periodically to regain vigor. Thanks for the great video!
Many scientific names are created after persons names, usually the person who formally describes or discovers the species, for example, the plant genus Haworthia, and the moth species Celaena haworthii, named after Adrian Hardy Haworth.
@@manjensen1710 Small correction, scientists are not allowed to name after themselves when they describe new species. So scientific names can be created after the person who discovered it, or another notable scientist in the same field, or potentially any person (e.g., friends, family members, etc), but never the person who describes the species.
It is frowned upon to do that today, but historically it was often done. See Linnaea borealis, for example, the favourite flower of the botanist Carl von Linné, who named it after himself in 1753.
Yeah, kind of a weak point in the video. As soon as I heard it I started imagining the Vox video 20 years from now blaming importation Whatever-we're-calling-these-plants for some invasive species or another.
But it already happens, now here in Mexico we have a species of Indian worm that I never knew or saw in my childhood and it came through the US to Mexico, guess how? In plants. By the way, it's called 'hammerhead flatworm'.
Not to mention the case for local growing, and how many of the same people wanting to limit large scale transport for environmental reasons also want their Christmas flowers authentic from Mexico, if I'm getting that right.
@@SalTheCat Exactly. And it’s not like they stepped in and stole the market from Mexican growers, they CREATED the market in the US in the first place.
Neat! we took a trip to Mexico in November once, it was very cool to see these plants growing wild, just off the highways in the underbrush. Thanks for sharing their history 👍👍
@@glossygloss472 No u Dnmb A$$, over the atrocities he committed. It's obvious ur completely oblivious to what these people's comments are all about and what the short video is about as well. 🤦🏻♂️
These plants have been such a staple of my life that I never even thought of where they’d come from - because of the name I’d always assumed they were European in origin. It’s going to take me some time to memorize cuetlaxochitl, but I absolutely will.
I'm from Brazil and had no idea the Bougainvillea was a native plant. On the other hand, a tree that looks like it's a native plant from Brazil (the Flamboyant tree) is native from Madagascar and was introduced in Brazil lol
@@shironerisilk things go around because the world is , well, round, the plant is native to Brazil and Peru, it's all over the Caribbean island where I am right now. It LOVES the tropics.🤣
It actually isn't very carbon intensive to grow plants long distances away if the method of cultivating them is somehow more efficient. Considering how many plants (or whatever else) go into shipping container, box car, or semi-trailer the carbon footprint is quite small, per item. Often times, the carbon footprint is actually highest, when talking about transportation, when going from the grocery store to the consumer's home. It is far less carbon intensive to transport hundreds of items in one vehicle than to transport 1 item on hundreds of vehicles, even over a relatively short distance. It really depends on a lot of factors if it is less carbon intensive to grow a plant domestically or internationally. It has far more to do with the soil and climate in the two locations than it has to do with the carbon emitted from transit. As someone who studied sustainable agriculture, I never realized this until actually doing calculating the carbon footprint of lettuce produced at the vertical urban farm I interned at. Local food is better for the community because you're (potentially) supporting local small businesses and things like this. It is good for the social aspects but no because it is actually better for the environment, at least no inherently. Each case needs to be evaluated individually.
The reason for Mexico not exporting them was "Decades old sanitation laws?" that's an interesting way of glossing over a real issue. Has Mexico not been able to meet our sanitation standards after decades? Are the laws somehow leveled unevenly against Mexico?
@@SeanDobes It's not anything Mexico is doing. In general, sending soil across country boundaries is a no-no because it can harbor pests that are basically impossible to look for within the soil. Plants that are imported are usually "bare root" AKA with no soil. Just bringing muddy boots back on a flight from another country can be a whole thing if you were on farm land in that country. I'm not personally certain that this *should* be the rule for a country that shares a land border with us, but I don't know enough about pest pressures say in Mexico v. Texas to say.
As a resident of the Greenville, SC area (home of Poinsett Highway, The Westin Poinsett & the Poinsett statue), I had no idea about the origins of the name "Poinsett". A real eye-opener, this one. Nice work!
Lived in Greenville all my life and never knew the dark side of Joel Poinsett. All I knew was the poinsettia was named after him. It's sickening to know we have a statue for such a racist, and it's only been there for a few years. Of course, we have a confederate statue too that nobody has bothered to remove.
Noche Buena is Christmas Eve…. Buenas noches is good night. And yes, Noche Buena is literal “good night” but doesn’t have the same meaning between a usual good night wish and the Christmas Eve holiday.
@1:15 ....A bract is not a leaf, although it is sometimes defined as a leaflike structure. Bracts usually differ in shape or color from leaves, and they function differently. Leaves may be anywhere along the stem while bracts are generally located on a stem just below a flower, a flower stalk, or an inflorescence. the top area of the Euphorbia pulcherrima shrub that changes colors are bracts and are not leaves.
@@Biophile23 I'm gonna say you're both right honestly IMO. Like the distinction is non-trivial, but I think it's most important to know that bracts are modified leaves. Like are bat wings hands? They're certainly more like hands than insect wings, but they're kinda not really hands anymore either. A forced metaphor but they're both homologous structures. Bat wings and bracts, I mean, not bat wings and insect wings lol
@@DaimyoD0 well at that level, a bat's wing is a hand. The scientific name for bats is chiroptera - hand -wing. Petals are also modified leaves. ;) But petals and sepals and other flower parts which are all modified leaves are much more specialized than bracts and have their own specific control genes. More like a whales flippers are also hands/arms. They are so modified you have to look inside of the structure to tell they are related.
They start out green, acting as photosynthesizing leaves, and later, the same organs turn color, functioning as bracts to attract pollinators. If you treat your purchased plant well, you will see that developmental transition occur yourself. It is not like bracts of other plants that have typically much smaller, and very differently shaped organs than the photosynthetic leaves. Bougainvillea is an example of bracts that develop as bracts from the outset.
Thank you, Ranjani. I always enjoy your videos, both your topics and your style. I’m 54 years old and I’d like to let you know that I’ve loved poinsettias since I was a very young boy, probably since age 5 when I was in kindergarten, when my father took me along to buy some poinsettias for my mother and grandmother and I exuberantly exclaimed upon seeing them, “We’re at the North Pole!” I was quite convinced that we had taken a car ride to that storied location as evidenced by the seemingly endless expanse of red and white poinsettia flowers, although we were, in fact, in a greenhouse somewhere in central Pennsylvania about thirty minutes from home. Over the years, I’ve read articles every November and December about poinsettias and their history as those articles popped up as holiday features in the news media. In fact, I was aware of every single point you brought up in your informative and elegantly presented video just by reading those holiday articles since my teenage years until now. My point for you is this; please lose the censoriousness that your generation so loves to indulge in. I love foreign languages and foreign cultures, and I will gladly add to my active vocabulary of names for my favorite flower the original name of cuetlaxochitl, a name that I’ve been aware of for decades, but I’ll also still call it a poinsettia because that name is a part of its history, too. Life isn’t always about stomping out the negativity and darkness in a fit of spiritual perfectionism brought on by self-help-book fanaticism and an overweening attitude of social justice. It’s also about integrating the positive and the negative, the light and the dark, so that you can have inclusive and cohesive wholeness. Merry Christmas!
Thank you for this chapter. We need to have more story how American culture is influenced by the neighbors nearby. As a Mexican, I want to be seen and not erased like we did not exist.
No one is erasing you. Americans used to be able to celebrate cultures that influenced them until it because cultural appropriation. The only people erasing Mexican culture are Mexicans like yourself. Also stuff gets a common name all the time. Have you ever used a bandaid?
@@Tracyinator Erasure is a complicated but very real issue for all sorts of people. In the context of discussion around North America, a lot of people focus on the US and Canada and sort of ignore the fact that Mexico exists. It does happen whether you believe it or not.
Until I went to Mexico I thought the poinsettia was just a flower grown as a small flower like marigold. My grandma had a tree sized plant it was gorgeous and bright red. Wherever you went it was like Ruby Red gemstones sticking out in the forest.
I think its relatively hard to change something as a name, thats been used in a culture for over a century. It basically lost all reference to Poinsett the person, to the point its simply the English translation to the Flower. Lastly its odd that the video didn't mention why it was so easy to influence the Mexican Government of the 1800s. It was in political Turmoil From its newly independence of Spain, the uprising against the Emperor and then multiple political factions that developed, shifted, and siezed power from each other
I wish more people understood that. Their are so many names with dark histories that most people are unaware of or simply don't care. Imagine is people knew the meaning behined the song "London Bridge". It would not be a child's folk tale for long.
Kind of what I was thinking. The cultural climate of Mexico at that point in time (and still) was very racist. The philosophy of one foreigner isn’t going change much. Also, growing up calling the flower Noche Buena I just took Pointsetta to be it’s translation. Words develop new meanings over time.
It’s wild how many rich dudes got stuff renamed after them, and some people have the gall to say efforts like this “attempt to erase history” when they’re actually revealing previously-buried history.
@@Reptilias I’m not sure why you think this about the morality of the people, it’s about stealing credit. I wouldn’t recommend replacing the ancient Greek names for plants native to Greece either, despite everything problematic those societies engaged in.
@@kaitlyn__L ok, I still think it’s too simplistic to think of all of this as stealing credit. By the same logic, we should not be using terms as America, voltage, Polonium or even call planets by their names. All of these things existed prior to them being named this way by scientists/discoverers etc.. In my mind, it’s great that we honour some of the discoverers and scientists by naming things after them as they sail oceans, devise scientific theories, describe things with precision or spread them to the rest of the civilisation for everyone to enjoy. The aztecs did not spread this plant all across the globe, so perhaps it makes sense they only get an honourable mention.
This one is a fascinating one. Since very few people know the history it feels like it's no longer honoring the person and instead it's transcended to just a plant name. But by educating people now it's going to become more associated with that guy. But if it doesn't get enough traction it will stay named the same. This feels like one of those times where ignorance is bliss. Though I'm always for education even if it doesn't lead to anything.
Yeah I agree with this perspective. I don’t believe many people knew this toxic backstory about the name of the plant, but now we’re left in a weird place where it feels like more effort to rewire the name of a plant you rarely think of but have known for years, yet also be forced to reconcile with its history.
@@richiejrich I don't think it's weird at all.. and I'm saying that as a Black American descendant of U.S.slaves. I find it very interesting how people always want to be moan the history of white supremacist behavior when it comes from white Americans but not when it comes from White spaniards. Surely white Spaniards forcibly removed the native indigenous folks off of their own Mesoamerican land, force their language onto the people there, use coercive means of miscegenation to create a mixed race population and introduced their religion and what is a now modern Mexico by force. If we take an issue with calling it poinsettia then we have to take an issue with the Spanish language name for the plant and the ties that the name has to Christianity.. both of which were forced on to the native Mesoamerican people's by white Spaniard conquerors.
And so ya'll think every named thing should be reviewed to make sure it isn't associated with someone other than Jesus Christ.. the only perfect person to walk the earth?
A name is just a name. Most people don't know the origin of the name and thus the name itself cannot be considered racist. It is a waste of resources to attempt convincing everyone to change the it, especially to one which I bet most of the population will be unable to pronounce.
There never was a British Colombia. Columbia District on the other hand used to overlap with Oregon Territory. Columbia District eventually became British Columbia.
I feel like the legacy of the plant has far outlived the man of origin, so thus I think the name Poinsettias has lived past its controversial origins, and therefore doesn't need to be changed.
Oh i know this plant! We called it katusba/kastuba, The green leaves is a very well known delicacy in sundanese household. The way we ate it is we picked the green leaves and we boiled it until it soften and we dipped it in sambal! Although i think the one we ate is the wild one, since it grow quite tall.
yes! I'm an Indonesian (live in Indonesia too) My mom also called it Katsuba, and our store here also called as Katsuba rather be Poinsettia. They also came in white (very pale green) & pink color too. My mom said it's due high sun exposure all year long, if you want the red color, it's should be place in well lit shaded area. Many planter here use Paranett with shade rating 70% to achieve it without using greenhouse.
99.9% of people have never heard of this “Poinset” guy and don’t associate him with the plant. Given that, does it matter if that’s where the name comes from? I think we have bigger things to worry about in life.
But renaming this one plant (that most people do not even realize is named for a person anyway) will free all the souls of those he wronged in his lifetime and "fix" colonialism ....right?
I think you could certainly make a case for transitioning the American English term for the plant to "The Christmas Flower" or something like that, but "cuetlaxochitl" would be a harder sell. Most native English speakers would have no idea how to read that word and pronounce it correctly, since it uses phonemes not found in the English language.
The whole point is removing the name intended to honor a man with a long history of very problematic ethics. Most plants are not named after supremacists.
@@Vim_Tim Who cares? Poinsett’s foreign policy is unrelated to his work as an amateur botanist and proliferation and popularization of the plant. If it weren’t for him that plant wouldn’t have ever become a household Christmas decoration. Everyone’s making a big deal out of nothing.
@@Vim_Tim ehh, I’m actually going to disagree with you there; While I don’t have the exact naming statistics on plants, if a plant is named after any european before 1900, they are most likely named after a supremacist.
@@RainierKine So? Who cares? Are we going to define everyone by their worst traits without regarding their role in the popularization or proliferation of the subject in question? He’s the one who popularized it. Before him it was little known outside of its native range. Are we just going to rename everything named after someone with a questionable past?
So now we all gotta change what we call a flower just because the person that brought it to the us was horrible? Im amazed how much effort from a major news company was put into talking about a flower and why we all need to change what we call it . Me calling it a poinstetta isnt hurting anyone
Friendly reminder to buy locally, wherever you live. In this case, importing Mexican plants when they can be grown closer to the market that buys them just doesn’t make sense environmentally.
Not always. Poinsettias just grow naturally in many regions in Mexico and you can see many blooming now out in the streets, whereas you'd need expensive and less environment-friendly greenhouses to grow them in most of the States.
@@Brap-pl2me Haha! I just tell myself, it's the thought that counts and then do whatever is most convenient. That usually assuages my guilty conscience about a multitude of things for a good while at least.
I already posted this comment above but I will copy it and paste it here for you as well. The topic is much more nuanced than you realize. It actually isn't very carbon intensive to grow plants long distances away if the method of cultivating them is somehow more efficient. Considering how many plants (or whatever else) go into shipping container, box car, or semi-trailer the carbon footprint is quite small, per item. Often times, the carbon footprint is actually highest, when talking about transportation, when going from the grocery store to the consumer's home. It is far less carbon intensive to transport hundreds of items in one vehicle than to transport 1 item on hundreds of vehicles, even over a relatively short distance. It really depends on a lot of factors if it is less carbon intensive to grow a plant domestically or internationally. It has far more to do with the soil and climate in the two locations than it has to do with the carbon emitted from transit. As someone who studied sustainable agriculture, I never realized this until actually doing calculating the carbon footprint of lettuce produced at the vertical urban farm I interned at. Local food is better for the community because you're (potentially) supporting local small businesses and things like this. It is good for the social aspects but no because it is actually better for the environment, at least no inherently. Each case needs to be evaluated individually.
This explains a lot. I’ve always seen them as a big decor piece for my family in Mexico, but recently noticed how there’s huge tree sized ones in people’s gardens and they’re red in August. I’ve always bought them for my home here in the US bc I felt like it was a Mexican tradition, but never knew how deep the roots were to the area my family is from (including Taxco!). Thanks for the video.
As an American florist employee who helped grow a greenhouse full of poinsettias this season, I had no idea about the origin of their name. Poinsett was very racist and enacted atrocities, but unfortunately the name has stuck to a point where if we started calling our crop something other then poinsettia, people would not know what we’re talking about. Everyone in the industry and every customer uses the name poinsettia. Changing the name at our shop, over the phone, on our website, and explaining the name change to thousands of customers is not practical and would result in confusion and less sales. The name poinsettia may just have to be an interesting talking point about American history.
I think its an instantly recognizable plant that people would still buy if the name was changed in the store or online. Maybe try there and tell people it's the original name of the plant. No need to go into more detail than that. Getting customers introduced to the name and getting the conversation started is better than nothing.
You could begin the change. Call it the indigenous name, but put in brackets (Poinsettia) and provide a bit of history about the name. That way people can learn, and will still be able to recognize and purchase the plant. Slowly the old name could be removed, but slow changes allow our society to change and it's business owners and people who care to make those small changes happen.
I see your point. That makes sense. Perhaps it has to reach critical mass before officially changing anything. Like we should all just casually call it Christmas flower to other people throughout our life until it catches on.
Thanks for telling us about a guy we didnt even know, reattach this bad meaning to the plant, and now establish his legacy in our minds when we think about this plant. 👍
@3:47 Don't know who drew that map, but while the US claimed all of Pacific Northwest/Oregon County, they never actually occupied BC in any meaningful numbers. There was also a competing counterclaim from Hudson Bay Company/Great Britain for all territory down to the Columbia River, which included today's Washington and chunks of Idaho and Montana. Border wasn't officially settled until 1846.
This was a fascinating episode, thank you for shedding light on this plant's history and its unsavoury namesake ! I had no idea, I'll be remembering indigenous people of Mexico whenever I see this plant now ❤️ I'd be delighted to see more episodes like this one, if you feel like it 😊
It would have been nice to touch upon it's modern day usage around the world, like you did with the US. For example, they're fairly popular here in the UK and it seems unrealistic to import them from Mexico. Even if you just quickly flashed up a map of countries that have them around Christmastime and where those countries grow them.
On the point at 06:11 The idea that there is some injustice in growing a plant domestically instead of importing it from its native range is pretty dubious. Where does that end? Most domesticated or potted plants grown in any given country are not native to that country.
@@Christiangjf It has to do with Argentinian history that I'm not familiar with (something about the May Revolution). Since Argentina is closer than Mexico, it makes sense that we use that name in Paraguay too.
Can’t believe that this content with the best animations and Commentary is avalable for free on RUclips. I used to watch history documentaries on netflix but since I have found this channel I cancelled my Netflix subscription. Keep it up Vox!
Could people stop that pursuit of hating people from centuries ago? His work as an ambasador has nothing to do with why the plant is named after him - he brought it to the states. Also examining people from centuries ago with a modern comb you'd need to rename everything and take down all the statues because people aren't black and white and, especially back then, often did questionable things. Maybe do a video about how they should rename things named after Ghandi in India since he often wrote racist letters. Clearly someone's important achievements shouldn't matter if they did something questionable also.
I've literally never seen this plant before...as I'm an Aussie. The plant does look rather unique, regardless of its name; I can see why so many people like it.
Kinda fascinates me that this plant is a big deal at summer Christmas' in Australia too - & with that name with so much baggage attached to it, that I had no idea on & doubt any Aussie has any idea on (and probably most Americans don't even know). I looked at buying one to grow once, till I learnt it's red in winter & our Christmas of course is in the middle of Summer, but they're specially breed or imported to give us red flowers for Christmas here too. I feel like we probably should just replace them with a native Aussie or Kiwi plant, rather than trying to change the name
@@joeyhandles hmm not sure we really copy you more than you copy us, at least when comparing population sizes. I'd say there's more than 13 times the Aussie influence in the US as there is US influence in Oz, I mean look at how many of "your" movie stars are Aussies, just for starters 😛
@@joeyhandles we dont copy america. no one wants to be america. I'll take out free healthcare, solid welfare system and lack of war crimes in the middle east and 'ghetto-ising' redlining any day.
@@mehere8038 When I visited Sydney, I saw a lot of American brands: Starbucks, McDonald's, Ford Motor, Hungry Jack (Burger King). Australia is like our neighbors to the west. (Having a Tim Tam slam while I'm typing this.)
...as a non-American, I honestly really don't care. At this point I feel like most historical people have their issues but tbh it'd be a hassle to change everything to be consistent with that principle. Honestly, I really don't get Americans obsession on whitewashing their history. It's named after a sketchy guy, it is just what it is.
Poinsettia is a beautiful name for the beautiful plant. I will continue to call it that as it is the name of the plant. Why do we find every small thing and make a mountain out of it? It solves nothing, just causes more issues.
personally I'd prefer to switch to a name like that if we have to switch, simplicity in names is popular in Australia, wonder how we ever got the American name instead of the German one when your name fits better with our naming rules. We have "gum trees" - cause they have gummy stuff on them, "Blue mountains" - cause the gumtree oil gives them a blue colour, "Snowy Mountains" - cause it snows there, "Great Barrier Reef" - cause it's a reef that forms a really long barrier for ships & waves, "Kakadu plum" - a plum like fruit found in Kakadu, "Finger limes" - lime family member with finger shaped fruits & on & on. We like naming stuff simply :)
renaming things does nothing to erase the wrongs of the past, i had no idea who was poinsett before this video but he just seems like a regular political man of the time. cancelling a war secretary for waging war essentially
I don't think I've ever even seen one of these, I live in Australia, I'm not religious but I do some christian holidays anyways, pretty normal, but I've never seen one of them. There are a lot of areas that have what is called a dual name, a legal name that is both the first nations name and the european one. eg, Kati Thanda / Lake Eyre. Uluru / Ayers Rock. So doing this would be great in the US, you don't have to entirely change the name, people will likely still use the old one, so you can use dual names, everyone can be happy.
In Australia they grow in the north, northern NSW and Qld. They grow in the winter so you won’t see them at Christmas. Good idea to have an indigenous name for this spectacular plant.
They’ve always been extremely popular in the areas around Australia where I live (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne) and are sold in vast quantities at various retailers (Coles, Woolworths, IKEA, Waldecks, Iga etc) in Summer. We used to have a tree variety growing in our garden.
@@Ozraptor4 Yeah I live in adelaide but maybe I just haven't seen them or don't remember. As I said I'm not religious and just do christmas for the fun of it so i guess it's maybe part of the more traditional christmas.
Nice report but I don't see the need to rename everything because we don't approve of someone who lived over 200 years ago. If we use that standard, then the vast majority of items, places and events would have to be renamed - only to have them renamed because people in the 22nd century would not approve of any name we place on stuff because we ate animals.
This was fascinating. My partner brought home a tiny plant from her office seven years ago this week, and we now own an enormous cuetlaxochitl shrub that blooms red once a year. It’s so large, it takes almost the entire year for all of the red leaves to fall. More people should save their office plants!
It is a beautiful and noble plant. Here in México you can see it anywhere, my grandma gave her friend a small plant (Coincidentally seven years ago too) from a shrub of her villa, and when we got to see her friend on this year, that little branch became another beautiful shrub.
Point-set-tia This is how I hear everyone say it. Mispronounce it entirely if you disapprove of him. Point-say-shuh Or just say it wrong? I like this one
I'm sorry to say, but the new name will never catch on. It's far too difficult for the average English speaker to spell and no one will ever pronounce it correctly. I fail to see any true benefit to renaming this plant. Poinsett was a fairly typical man by 19th-century standards - there were far worse people in his time. I know some might disagree, but I don't think he committed any major atrocities that would justify a name change. What would we be accomplishing by renaming the poinsettia? What's the point of damning the memory of a long-dead man whose legacy has been forgotten by the average American?
Interesting video, but I find it a bit exhausting to examine the etymology of every word and name for things and find “problematic” things about names and therefore change established terms for these obscure reasons. It seems ridiculous to hold historical figures to 21st century standards
Lol so you would rather continue the ignorant and toxic cycle that eurocentricity has caused by renaming things that have ALREADY HAD ESTABLISHED TERMS before some white folk stole them. Coolcoolcool
Yes. By this standard the capitol of the US should change its name. A few states should change their names. Washington is problematic. Columbia is problematic. Georgia is problematic. York is problematic. Like everything and everyone named before 2022 is problematic.
on one hand I agree, but on the other hand, it is a good history learning opportunity, so a case could be made for making these people with these named things kinda right their wrongs by educating a future generation as to the unjust history in humanity's past. In terms of names, I think there's better targets, the budgie/budgerigar being a good example. Why does it get called a "parakeet" in the US? It's one of the few Aboriginal words to actually make it into international English, so I think a focus on recognising that & retaining it has much more meaning than changing flowers names cause the person who popularised it was a duck (with an i), especially when "parakeet" is the generic name for small parrots, so is confusing when one country uses it to sometimes mean a particular bird within that family, not the whole family too. There's plenty of other examples of similar words that have clear Indigenous origins still in use & able to be increased in use to retain at least bits of those languages too.
Fortunately, you finding it tiresome isn’t a measure of anything other than ease with the current state. Plenty of people find centuries of cultural problems exhausting, and you don’t get the stronger claim just because you prefer the problems as they are. What a ludicrous take.
Rename it. Cuetlaxochitl is probably way too hard for euro language speakers to pronounce, so…. Maybe meet half way and call it Mexican star or noche buena. And thank you for the history. I’m very grateful as someone who is Mexican.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
The word cuetlaxochitl is a Nahuatl word. Today within Mexico there are a few different ways people pronounce it, including kwet-la-sho-shee, kwet-la-so-chee, and kwet-la-so-chittel. For the word poinsettia, many pronounce it how it's spelled - poinsett-ee-ah. But others, especially in the US, say poinsett-ah. (how I say it in the piece!) How do you say these words? -Ranjani
👉 set-ee-uh
Kweh-tla-so-shee-tl
Why would you pronounce 'poinsettia' incorrectly just because others do? It's just perpetuating ignorance.
Ive literally never heard the nahuatl wprd here in Mexico. Even in rural regions that are primarily nahuatl.
We just use "Nochebuena". Thats interesting
@@Miaow610 What's ignorant is assuming that only one pronunciation is correct.
Nochebuenas (as we call them in central Mexico) are really common in house gardens. Both of my grandmothers had them and the change of colors of the leaves was a big thing every year when I was growing up and spending time with them while they took care of their gardens. Its a beautiful part of winter in México and it’s great to know more about it’s story in the US. Great piece!!
May I ask, are you bothered that we call it after this man?
@@laattardo nah, not at all. We mexicans can’t expect for americans to call them nochebuenas or cuetlaxochitl. At the end, it’s just a plant, an important plant in mexican culture, but just a plant.
@@GonzaloGEhnis thank you for responding and Feliz Navidad 🎄
@@laattardo we (my mexican family) didn’t even know it was named after a man with questionable ethics, we just always called it nochebuenas and kept it pushing. If it ever gets renamed to something else, great, if not oh well. It’s just like everything else named after/in honor of questionable people (columbus day, thanksgiving, universities/colleges named after confederate generals, etc), not much you can do about it, and most people calling it poinsettias aren’t in alignment of the dude’s views anyway.
As a mexiquense I like both nahuatl and Spanish names, never called them poinsettia, but I would be happy if as minimum english speakers use the Spanish version, or put it aside the english name, many don't even know where it comes from! And I think origins are important.
In Brazil, we call those plants "bico-de-papagaio", which means "parrot's beak".
I like that.
Delightful!
In Honduras 🇭🇳 it's called "Pascua" in English "Easter".
Que lindo!
As a Mexican I will now decorate my entire house with these!
:) Sounds excellent! Just be cautious if you have a pet that enjoys munching on plants. The white sap in Christmas stars is mildly toxic.
Because you found out it is originally from Mexico?
The red "leaves" are called bracts, to differentiate them from the normal green ones. They serve to attract pollinators, as the real flowers are discreet. Here in Brazil it grows like a sparse and branched bush, which loses its vigor with age. Needs to be pruned periodically to regain vigor. Thanks for the great video!
I didn't even know it was named after a dude. I thought poinsetia was part of the scientific name.
Many scientific names are created after persons names, usually the person who formally describes or discovers the species, for example, the plant genus Haworthia, and the moth species Celaena haworthii, named after Adrian Hardy Haworth.
@@manjensen1710 Small correction, scientists are not allowed to name after themselves when they describe new species. So scientific names can be created after the person who discovered it, or another notable scientist in the same field, or potentially any person (e.g., friends, family members, etc), but never the person who describes the species.
@@wwvvvvvww Small correction, he didn't say they were. Read it again.
It is frowned upon to do that today, but historically it was often done. See Linnaea borealis, for example, the favourite flower of the botanist Carl von Linné, who named it after himself in 1753.
Scientific names are often just some dude's name so you weren't wrong in that sense
Ok but international transport of plants can be a really big problem, spreading disease and bugs and stuff. It's not always nefarious.
we know
Yeah, kind of a weak point in the video. As soon as I heard it I started imagining the Vox video 20 years from now blaming importation Whatever-we're-calling-these-plants for some invasive species or another.
But it already happens, now here in Mexico we have a species of Indian worm that I never knew or saw in my childhood and it came through the US to Mexico, guess how? In plants. By the way, it's called 'hammerhead flatworm'.
Not to mention the case for local growing, and how many of the same people wanting to limit large scale transport for environmental reasons also want their Christmas flowers authentic from Mexico, if I'm getting that right.
@@SalTheCat Exactly. And it’s not like they stepped in and stole the market from Mexican growers, they CREATED the market in the US in the first place.
Neat! we took a trip to Mexico in November once, it was very cool to see these plants growing wild, just off the highways in the underbrush. Thanks for sharing their history 👍👍
You seriousy missed the essence of the story, NEAT? REALLY?
@@WNT2BLV treachery? Over taking a single plant and growing it in the US? 😂
Neat??? I shudder to think what you call slavery or the Holocaust.
@@glossygloss472 that's all you got from the video?
@@glossygloss472 No u Dnmb A$$, over the atrocities he committed. It's obvious ur completely oblivious to what these people's comments are all about and what the short video is about as well. 🤦🏻♂️
'But, his legacy is a tainted one.'
SURPRISE!
Legacy reads like 19th Century Bingo.
These plants have been such a staple of my life that I never even thought of where they’d come from - because of the name I’d always assumed they were European in origin. It’s going to take me some time to memorize cuetlaxochitl, but I absolutely will.
In Mexico we call them Noche Buenas
Cuetlaxochitl actually means flower that feels like skin.
That's really cool b/c the bracts really do feel like skin, waxy and elastic
@dress for the dystopia you want they really do! This video was awsome, but wished they would have done a little more research on the name
Like leather... Yes
Was about to mention this
Please do one on the beautiful plant The Bougainvillea, which was introduced into Europe from the western hemisphere, particularly from Brazil!
Not a big fan of it because it's a bit of a thorny, obnoxious weed in Arizona.
I love the bougainvillea
I'm from Brazil and had no idea the Bougainvillea was a native plant. On the other hand, a tree that looks like it's a native plant from Brazil (the Flamboyant tree) is native from Madagascar and was introduced in Brazil lol
@@shironerisilk things go around because the world is , well, round, the plant is native to Brazil and Peru, it's all over the Caribbean island where I am right now. It LOVES the tropics.🤣
What about the ipês? I love all of their colors. Also amaryllis which is a common holiday plant that comes from Brasil.
Having the plant being grown locally is a good thing. Importing at long distance is highly carbon intensive.
It actually isn't very carbon intensive to grow plants long distances away if the method of cultivating them is somehow more efficient. Considering how many plants (or whatever else) go into shipping container, box car, or semi-trailer the carbon footprint is quite small, per item. Often times, the carbon footprint is actually highest, when talking about transportation, when going from the grocery store to the consumer's home. It is far less carbon intensive to transport hundreds of items in one vehicle than to transport 1 item on hundreds of vehicles, even over a relatively short distance. It really depends on a lot of factors if it is less carbon intensive to grow a plant domestically or internationally. It has far more to do with the soil and climate in the two locations than it has to do with the carbon emitted from transit. As someone who studied sustainable agriculture, I never realized this until actually doing calculating the carbon footprint of lettuce produced at the vertical urban farm I interned at. Local food is better for the community because you're (potentially) supporting local small businesses and things like this. It is good for the social aspects but no because it is actually better for the environment, at least no inherently. Each case needs to be evaluated individually.
Not always. Imagine you're in a desert, growing stuff there is more carbon intensive than growing in a more lush place and importing it.
The reason for Mexico not exporting them was "Decades old sanitation laws?" that's an interesting way of glossing over a real issue. Has Mexico not been able to meet our sanitation standards after decades? Are the laws somehow leveled unevenly against Mexico?
Ahem.. tomatoes, cucumbers, asparagus, strawberries, and the list can go on and on..........
@@SeanDobes It's not anything Mexico is doing. In general, sending soil across country boundaries is a no-no because it can harbor pests that are basically impossible to look for within the soil. Plants that are imported are usually "bare root" AKA with no soil. Just bringing muddy boots back on a flight from another country can be a whole thing if you were on farm land in that country. I'm not personally certain that this *should* be the rule for a country that shares a land border with us, but I don't know enough about pest pressures say in Mexico v. Texas to say.
As a resident of the Greenville, SC area (home of Poinsett Highway, The Westin Poinsett & the Poinsett statue), I had no idea about the origins of the name "Poinsett". A real eye-opener, this one. Nice work!
I guess I'll need to find a new place to take photos with visitors who are in town. 😅
Omg me too! Born and raised here and never ever knew about the name until now!
Lived in Greenville all my life and never knew the dark side of Joel Poinsett. All I knew was the poinsettia was named after him. It's sickening to know we have a statue for such a racist, and it's only been there for a few years. Of course, we have a confederate statue too that nobody has bothered to remove.
I never realized until she said his name and my mind immediately went to poinsett highway😅
In Mexico we call it Noche Buena, which literally means "good night" but it is the way we call Christmas Eve.
Noche buena is something that we call "christmas dinner" in the philippines 🤣
That’s lovely!
@@kevin080592 Its cena de noche buena,means christmas eve dinner.
Noche Buena is Christmas Eve…. Buenas noches is good night. And yes, Noche Buena is literal “good night” but doesn’t have the same meaning between a usual good night wish and the Christmas Eve holiday.
@1:15 ....A bract is not a leaf, although it is sometimes defined as a leaflike structure. Bracts usually differ in shape or color from leaves, and they function differently. Leaves may be anywhere along the stem while bracts are generally located on a stem just below a flower, a flower stalk, or an inflorescence. the top area of the Euphorbia pulcherrima shrub that changes colors are bracts and are not leaves.
A bract is a modified leaf. And for the layperson the distinction is minimal. The main thing is to let people know they are not petals. :)
@@Biophile23 I'm gonna say you're both right honestly IMO. Like the distinction is non-trivial, but I think it's most important to know that bracts are modified leaves. Like are bat wings hands? They're certainly more like hands than insect wings, but they're kinda not really hands anymore either. A forced metaphor but they're both homologous structures. Bat wings and bracts, I mean, not bat wings and insect wings lol
@@DaimyoD0 well at that level, a bat's wing is a hand. The scientific name for bats is chiroptera - hand -wing. Petals are also modified leaves. ;) But petals and sepals and other flower parts which are all modified leaves are much more specialized than bracts and have their own specific control genes. More like a whales flippers are also hands/arms. They are so modified you have to look inside of the structure to tell they are related.
They start out green, acting as photosynthesizing leaves, and later, the same organs turn color, functioning as bracts to attract pollinators.
If you treat your purchased plant well, you will see that developmental transition occur yourself.
It is not like bracts of other plants that have typically much smaller, and very differently shaped organs than the photosynthetic leaves. Bougainvillea is an example of bracts that develop as bracts from the outset.
Thank you, Ranjani. I always enjoy your videos, both your topics and your style. I’m 54 years old and I’d like to let you know that I’ve loved poinsettias since I was a very young boy, probably since age 5 when I was in kindergarten, when my father took me along to buy some poinsettias for my mother and grandmother and I exuberantly exclaimed upon seeing them, “We’re at the North Pole!” I was quite convinced that we had taken a car ride to that storied location as evidenced by the seemingly endless expanse of red and white poinsettia flowers, although we were, in fact, in a greenhouse somewhere in central Pennsylvania about thirty minutes from home. Over the years, I’ve read articles every November and December about poinsettias and their history as those articles popped up as holiday features in the news media. In fact, I was aware of every single point you brought up in your informative and elegantly presented video just by reading those holiday articles since my teenage years until now. My point for you is this; please lose the censoriousness that your generation so loves to indulge in. I love foreign languages and foreign cultures, and I will gladly add to my active vocabulary of names for my favorite flower the original name of cuetlaxochitl, a name that I’ve been aware of for decades, but I’ll also still call it a poinsettia because that name is a part of its history, too. Life isn’t always about stomping out the negativity and darkness in a fit of spiritual perfectionism brought on by self-help-book fanaticism and an overweening attitude of social justice. It’s also about integrating the positive and the negative, the light and the dark, so that you can have inclusive and cohesive wholeness. Merry Christmas!
Thank you for this chapter. We need to have more story how American culture is influenced by the neighbors nearby. As a Mexican, I want to be seen and not erased like we did not exist.
No one is erasing you. Americans used to be able to celebrate cultures that influenced them until it because cultural appropriation. The only people erasing Mexican culture are Mexicans like yourself.
Also stuff gets a common name all the time. Have you ever used a bandaid?
Very true.
Who is erasing you like you don’t exist?
Examples would help your position.
I see you are commenting on this site. Who has or is erasing you?
@@Tracyinator Erasure is a complicated but very real issue for all sorts of people. In the context of discussion around North America, a lot of people focus on the US and Canada and sort of ignore the fact that Mexico exists. It does happen whether you believe it or not.
Until I went to Mexico I thought the poinsettia was just a flower grown as a small flower like marigold.
My grandma had a tree sized plant it was gorgeous and bright red.
Wherever you went it was like Ruby Red gemstones sticking out in the forest.
I think its relatively hard to change something as a name, thats been used in a culture for over a century.
It basically lost all reference to Poinsett the person, to the point its simply the English translation to the Flower.
Lastly its odd that the video didn't mention why it was so easy to influence the Mexican Government of the 1800s. It was in political Turmoil From its newly independence of Spain, the uprising against the Emperor and then multiple political factions that developed, shifted, and siezed power from each other
I wish more people understood that. Their are so many names with dark histories that most people are unaware of or simply don't care. Imagine is people knew the meaning behined the song "London Bridge". It would not be a child's folk tale for long.
Kind of what I was thinking. The cultural climate of Mexico at that point in time (and still) was very racist. The philosophy of one foreigner isn’t going change much. Also, growing up calling the flower Noche Buena I just took Pointsetta to be it’s translation. Words develop new meanings over time.
"it's okay to start a secret society to steal land from your neighbors! they're in political turmoil so it doesn't count!"
It’s wild how many rich dudes got stuff renamed after them, and some people have the gall to say efforts like this “attempt to erase history” when they’re actually revealing previously-buried history.
But the aztecs were engaged in brutal human sacrifices and cannibalism as a part of their religion. Maybe we should not use the aztec name eiter? 😮
@@Reptilias I’m not sure why you think this about the morality of the people, it’s about stealing credit. I wouldn’t recommend replacing the ancient Greek names for plants native to Greece either, despite everything problematic those societies engaged in.
@@kaitlyn__L ok, I still think it’s too simplistic to think of all of this as stealing credit. By the same logic, we should not be using terms as America, voltage, Polonium or even call planets by their names. All of these things existed prior to them being named this way by scientists/discoverers etc..
In my mind, it’s great that we honour some of the discoverers and scientists by naming things after them as they sail oceans, devise scientific theories, describe things with precision or spread them to the rest of the civilisation for everyone to enjoy. The aztecs did not spread this plant all across the globe, so perhaps it makes sense they only get an honourable mention.
I never knew any of this. Thank you for the history lesson, and a fascinating look this plant I love during the holidays.
Luckily in Italy it has another name “stella di Natale”, christmas star… so no Poinsette issue ;)
stavo per scriverlo io :-) buon Natale !
they mentioned the name christmas star in the intro! it's also christmas star (Kerstster) in the Netherlands!
As a Mexican I guess that's a better name than simply ignoring the original name as if one invented it
@@pottertheavenger1363 It’s still a way to remove the indigenous roots of the plant and Catholicize it, no better than Poinsettia
Wow, that name sounds way cooler.
This one is a fascinating one. Since very few people know the history it feels like it's no longer honoring the person and instead it's transcended to just a plant name. But by educating people now it's going to become more associated with that guy. But if it doesn't get enough traction it will stay named the same. This feels like one of those times where ignorance is bliss. Though I'm always for education even if it doesn't lead to anything.
Yeah I agree with this perspective. I don’t believe many people knew this toxic backstory about the name of the plant, but now we’re left in a weird place where it feels like more effort to rewire the name of a plant you rarely think of but have known for years, yet also be forced to reconcile with its history.
@@richiejrich I don't think it's weird at all.. and I'm saying that as a Black American descendant of U.S.slaves.
I find it very interesting how people always want to be moan the history of white supremacist behavior when it comes from white Americans but not when it comes from White spaniards. Surely white Spaniards forcibly removed the native indigenous folks off of their own Mesoamerican land, force their language onto the people there, use coercive means of miscegenation to create a mixed race population and introduced their religion and what is a now modern Mexico by force. If we take an issue with calling it poinsettia then we have to take an issue with the Spanish language name for the plant and the ties that the name has to Christianity.. both of which were forced on to the native Mesoamerican people's by white Spaniard conquerors.
And so ya'll think every named thing should be reviewed to make sure it isn't associated with someone other than Jesus Christ.. the only perfect person to walk the earth?
We used to have these flowers in our house every Christmas. But not anymore because we have a dog and didn’t want him to eat them by accident.
Same here.
They’re curious little guys 🤣
I love learning about things I would have never learnt without Vox ❤ Great work
Today I learned white man is bad
A name is just a name. Most people don't know the origin of the name and thus the name itself cannot be considered racist. It is a waste of resources to attempt convincing everyone to change the it, especially to one which I bet most of the population will be unable to pronounce.
I'm not against renaming it but "flower that withers" is a D tier name.
3:44 The US never owned British Colombia as far as I'm aware.
Expecting honesty from a video in this channel...?
Colombia was never British, as far as I’m aware
There never was a British Colombia.
Columbia District on the other hand used to overlap with Oregon Territory. Columbia District eventually became British Columbia.
I feel like the legacy of the plant has far outlived the man of origin, so thus I think the name Poinsettias has lived past its controversial origins, and therefore doesn't need to be changed.
That's really not how it works...
Oh i know this plant! We called it katusba/kastuba, The green leaves is a very well known delicacy in sundanese household. The way we ate it is we picked the green leaves and we boiled it until it soften and we dipped it in sambal!
Although i think the one we ate is the wild one, since it grow quite tall.
That's really cool!
Interesting. I hope that method works for the ones they sell around this time of year.
@@AnnaWillo How am I supposed to get my own ChubbyEmu video without taking risks?
yes! I'm an Indonesian (live in Indonesia too) My mom also called it Katsuba, and our store here also called as Katsuba rather be Poinsettia. They also came in white (very pale green) & pink color too. My mom said it's due high sun exposure all year long, if you want the red color, it's should be place in well lit shaded area. Many planter here use Paranett with shade rating 70% to achieve it without using greenhouse.
Joel Poinsett was a great botanist. He was a man of his times. You should be so influential.
In sweden we call it julstjärna (christmas star)
Pronounced _yool-HWER-nah_
Same in Germany "Weihnachtsstern"
Same in Italy, stella di Natale
I think this is true for most of Europe. Vánoční Hvězda in Czech Republic.
99.9% of people have never heard of this “Poinset” guy and don’t associate him with the plant. Given that, does it matter if that’s where the name comes from? I think we have bigger things to worry about in life.
As a mexican, it is amazing to see this kind of videos. Also, great nails.
You're kidding me right? A man born in 1779 was a racist, imperialistic, megalomaniac? I'm shocked. Shocked.
But renaming this one plant (that most people do not even realize is named for a person anyway) will free all the souls of those he wronged in his lifetime and "fix" colonialism ....right?
I think you could certainly make a case for transitioning the American English term for the plant to "The Christmas Flower" or something like that, but "cuetlaxochitl" would be a harder sell. Most native English speakers would have no idea how to read that word and pronounce it correctly, since it uses phonemes not found in the English language.
There's a ton of plants to rename if you want their geographical native names.
The whole point is removing the name intended to honor a man with a long history of very problematic ethics. Most plants are not named after supremacists.
@@Vim_Tim
Who cares? Poinsett’s foreign policy is unrelated to his work as an amateur botanist and proliferation and popularization of the plant. If it weren’t for him that plant wouldn’t have ever become a household Christmas decoration.
Everyone’s making a big deal out of nothing.
@@Vim_Tim ehh, I’m actually going to disagree with you there; While I don’t have the exact naming statistics on plants, if a plant is named after any european before 1900, they are most likely named after a supremacist.
@@henrylivingstone2971 It's still the same person though.
@@RainierKine
So? Who cares? Are we going to define everyone by their worst traits without regarding their role in the popularization or proliferation of the subject in question?
He’s the one who popularized it. Before him it was little known outside of its native range.
Are we just going to rename everything named after someone with a questionable past?
So now we all gotta change what we call a flower just because the person that brought it to the us was horrible? Im amazed how much effort from a major news company was put into talking about a flower and why we all need to change what we call it . Me calling it a poinstetta isnt hurting anyone
Don't you know you're supposed to feel guilty about everything that ever happened even before your birth?
Thank you for covering this 🙏🏻
Friendly reminder to buy locally, wherever you live. In this case, importing Mexican plants when they can be grown closer to the market that buys them just doesn’t make sense environmentally.
Yet, due to the trade treaties, the US has manged to be able to sell plants, fruits and vegetables to Mexico. While blocking Mexico of doing the same.
Not always. Poinsettias just grow naturally in many regions in Mexico and you can see many blooming now out in the streets, whereas you'd need expensive and less environment-friendly greenhouses to grow them in most of the States.
@@Brap-pl2me Haha! I just tell myself, it's the thought that counts and then do whatever is most convenient. That usually assuages my guilty conscience about a multitude of things for a good while at least.
I already posted this comment above but I will copy it and paste it here for you as well. The topic is much more nuanced than you realize.
It actually isn't very carbon intensive to grow plants long distances away if the method of cultivating them is somehow more efficient. Considering how many plants (or whatever else) go into shipping container, box car, or semi-trailer the carbon footprint is quite small, per item. Often times, the carbon footprint is actually highest, when talking about transportation, when going from the grocery store to the consumer's home. It is far less carbon intensive to transport hundreds of items in one vehicle than to transport 1 item on hundreds of vehicles, even over a relatively short distance. It really depends on a lot of factors if it is less carbon intensive to grow a plant domestically or internationally. It has far more to do with the soil and climate in the two locations than it has to do with the carbon emitted from transit. As someone who studied sustainable agriculture, I never realized this until actually doing calculating the carbon footprint of lettuce produced at the vertical urban farm I interned at. Local food is better for the community because you're (potentially) supporting local small businesses and things like this. It is good for the social aspects but no because it is actually better for the environment, at least no inherently. Each case needs to be evaluated individually.
Woke Uno! I love this. Whose gonna use the reverse victim climate card??
Me: that Red Christmas Plant. Boom, done.
Changing the name of the plant literally does nothing. it doesnt change history. It takes nothing away from the guy.
DIsagree, changing the name does one thing. Signals your "virtue" lol
This explains a lot. I’ve always seen them as a big decor piece for my family in Mexico, but recently noticed how there’s huge tree sized ones in people’s gardens and they’re red in August. I’ve always bought them for my home here in the US bc I felt like it was a Mexican tradition, but never knew how deep the roots were to the area my family is from (including Taxco!). Thanks for the video.
As an American florist employee who helped grow a greenhouse full of poinsettias this season, I had no idea about the origin of their name.
Poinsett was very racist and enacted atrocities, but unfortunately the name has stuck to a point where if we started calling our crop something other then poinsettia, people would not know what we’re talking about.
Everyone in the industry and every customer uses the name poinsettia. Changing the name at our shop, over the phone, on our website, and explaining the name change to thousands of customers is not practical and would result in confusion and less sales. The name poinsettia may just have to be an interesting talking point about American history.
I think its an instantly recognizable plant that people would still buy if the name was changed in the store or online. Maybe try there and tell people it's the original name of the plant. No need to go into more detail than that. Getting customers introduced to the name and getting the conversation started is better than nothing.
You could begin the change. Call it the indigenous name, but put in brackets (Poinsettia) and provide a bit of history about the name. That way people can learn, and will still be able to recognize and purchase the plant. Slowly the old name could be removed, but slow changes allow our society to change and it's business owners and people who care to make those small changes happen.
Whatever makes people feel better
I see your point. That makes sense. Perhaps it has to reach critical mass before officially changing anything. Like we should all just casually call it Christmas flower to other people throughout our life until it catches on.
I'm worried about Churches. As florist I'm sure you know about the role of the flower there. Could you imagine a church easily changing the name?
Thanks for telling us about a guy we didnt even know, reattach this bad meaning to the plant, and now establish his legacy in our minds when we think about this plant. 👍
I know, right? It's like we're looking back into history to find people to cancel.
@3:47 Don't know who drew that map, but while the US claimed all of Pacific Northwest/Oregon County, they never actually occupied BC in any meaningful numbers. There was also a competing counterclaim from Hudson Bay Company/Great Britain for all territory down to the Columbia River, which included today's Washington and chunks of Idaho and Montana. Border wasn't officially settled until 1846.
this was so insightful! thank you for making this video! I wish i could help you!
Love this episode of the missing chapter and the flowers! keep it going!
This was a fascinating episode, thank you for shedding light on this plant's history and its unsavoury namesake ! I had no idea, I'll be remembering indigenous people of Mexico whenever I see this plant now ❤️ I'd be delighted to see more episodes like this one, if you feel like it 😊
It would have been nice to touch upon it's modern day usage around the world, like you did with the US. For example, they're fairly popular here in the UK and it seems unrealistic to import them from Mexico. Even if you just quickly flashed up a map of countries that have them around Christmastime and where those countries grow them.
On the point at 06:11 The idea that there is some injustice in growing a plant domestically instead of importing it from its native range is pretty dubious. Where does that end? Most domesticated or potted plants grown in any given country are not native to that country.
In Paraguay and Argentina, we call this plant 'estrella federal' which means 'federal star'.
Now I want to know the history of that name
@@Christiangjf It has to do with Argentinian history that I'm not familiar with (something about the May Revolution). Since Argentina is closer than Mexico, it makes sense that we use that name in Paraguay too.
Thanks for explaining the potted plant vs the tree. I grew up seeing the tree in my home country and always wondered if it was the same plants.
Excellent reporting. Great graphics also
Love from México!
Can’t believe that this content with the best animations and Commentary is avalable for free on RUclips. I used to watch history documentaries on netflix but since I have found this channel I cancelled my Netflix subscription. Keep it up Vox!
simp
In Scandinavia it is called "Christmas Star" (NO/DK: Julestjerne, SE: Julstjärna).
Virtue signal more please.
Wow. Amazing to know this. Love how you explain these topics!
In my country it's literally called Santa-flower
you HAVE a country? wow!🤣
@@savagepro9060 Bro I am the president, know who you talk to... 😠😠
@@MortyMortyMorty Oh God, I'm sorry sir.🤭🤭
I knew the basics but I enjoyed your wonderful video and learned so much.
I love this flower 🌹 thanks for the history
Could people stop that pursuit of hating people from centuries ago? His work as an ambasador has nothing to do with why the plant is named after him - he brought it to the states. Also examining people from centuries ago with a modern comb you'd need to rename everything and take down all the statues because people aren't black and white and, especially back then, often did questionable things. Maybe do a video about how they should rename things named after Ghandi in India since he often wrote racist letters. Clearly someone's important achievements shouldn't matter if they did something questionable also.
I love Vox. Thank you again for your reporting and teaching. ❤️
I've literally never seen this plant before...as I'm an Aussie.
The plant does look rather unique, regardless of its name; I can see why so many people like it.
Kinda fascinates me that this plant is a big deal at summer Christmas' in Australia too - & with that name with so much baggage attached to it, that I had no idea on & doubt any Aussie has any idea on (and probably most Americans don't even know).
I looked at buying one to grow once, till I learnt it's red in winter & our Christmas of course is in the middle of Summer, but they're specially breed or imported to give us red flowers for Christmas here too.
I feel like we probably should just replace them with a native Aussie or Kiwi plant, rather than trying to change the name
y'all'll do that soon as you stop coping everything americans do
@@joeyhandles hmm not sure we really copy you more than you copy us, at least when comparing population sizes. I'd say there's more than 13 times the Aussie influence in the US as there is US influence in Oz, I mean look at how many of "your" movie stars are Aussies, just for starters 😛
@@joeyhandles we dont copy america. no one wants to be america. I'll take out free healthcare, solid welfare system and lack of war crimes in the middle east and 'ghetto-ising' redlining any day.
@@mehere8038 When I visited Sydney, I saw a lot of American brands: Starbucks, McDonald's, Ford Motor, Hungry Jack (Burger King). Australia is like our neighbors to the west.
(Having a Tim Tam slam while I'm typing this.)
@@RaymondHng
That's because these franchises expanded to these countries.
I didn’t know that noches buenas were from Mexico and I live here haha. But I really learned something new today and loved here the original name
To be on the safe side we'll just have to name everything with numbers.
I'm from Mexico and I didn't have idea of its history, thanks Vox!
...as a non-American, I honestly really don't care. At this point I feel like most historical people have their issues but tbh it'd be a hassle to change everything to be consistent with that principle. Honestly, I really don't get Americans obsession on whitewashing their history. It's named after a sketchy guy, it is just what it is.
Poinsettia is a beautiful name for the beautiful plant. I will continue to call it that as it is the name of the plant. Why do we find every small thing and make a mountain out of it? It solves nothing, just causes more issues.
In Germany, it is called the Christmas star
personally I'd prefer to switch to a name like that if we have to switch, simplicity in names is popular in Australia, wonder how we ever got the American name instead of the German one when your name fits better with our naming rules. We have "gum trees" - cause they have gummy stuff on them, "Blue mountains" - cause the gumtree oil gives them a blue colour, "Snowy Mountains" - cause it snows there, "Great Barrier Reef" - cause it's a reef that forms a really long barrier for ships & waves, "Kakadu plum" - a plum like fruit found in Kakadu, "Finger limes" - lime family member with finger shaped fruits & on & on. We like naming stuff simply :)
Wow...the more you know....
In Puerto Rico we call them PASCUAS or FLOR DE PASCUA (Xmas flower).
But doesn't Pascua mean Easter?
@@antonioricaud5308 It does too, in Guatemala we also call them Pascuas but it's refering to xmas.
I like the way you overlaid the illustrations over the blank pages. A nice touch that really enhanced your video. Oh yeah, very interesting, too.
renaming things does nothing to erase the wrongs of the past, i had no idea who was poinsett before this video but he just seems like a regular political man of the time. cancelling a war secretary for waging war essentially
Would have never learned this valuable information if it were not for this wonderful video! Thank you!
Do you provide a page that shows sources for the information in your videos. I want to learn more.
They have additional sources in the description.
If you click "show more" in the description they linked a few sources!
that time is here again ❤
Anytime I hear these videos say someone’s history is tainted, my sarcasm jumps out like “WOW I CAN’T BELIEVE IT”😂. Still interesting to learn about
WOW ❤️ thank you for this video
I don't think I've ever even seen one of these, I live in Australia, I'm not religious but I do some christian holidays anyways, pretty normal, but I've never seen one of them.
There are a lot of areas that have what is called a dual name, a legal name that is both the first nations name and the european one. eg, Kati Thanda / Lake Eyre. Uluru / Ayers Rock.
So doing this would be great in the US, you don't have to entirely change the name, people will likely still use the old one, so you can use dual names, everyone can be happy.
In Australia they grow in the north, northern NSW and Qld. They grow in the winter so you won’t see them at Christmas. Good idea to have an indigenous name for this spectacular plant.
They’ve always been extremely popular in the areas around Australia where I live (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne) and are sold in vast quantities at various retailers (Coles, Woolworths, IKEA, Waldecks, Iga etc) in Summer. We used to have a tree variety growing in our garden.
@@Ozraptor4 Yeah I live in adelaide but maybe I just haven't seen them or don't remember. As I said I'm not religious and just do christmas for the fun of it so i guess it's maybe part of the more traditional christmas.
Oh really, its name meant, "flower that withers?" ...that's not a vague and confusing description of a FLOWER at all.
Such a nice video. Though, would be easier to call it “noche buena”, as we call it in Mexico. Calling it Poinsettia would keep colonialism.
Because a Spanish name is less colonialist? Lol do you know which Empire colonized and brutalized the native population?
@@afonsords irony
Meanwhile in Spain are called other way, Flor de pascua
I still like these longer format videos over the shorts.
Nice report but I don't see the need to rename everything because we don't approve of someone who lived over 200 years ago. If we use that standard, then the vast majority of items, places and events would have to be renamed - only to have them renamed because people in the 22nd century would not approve of any name we place on stuff because we ate animals.
Yea, it's the ethics equivalent of make-work.
Wow, thanks for sharing!
It's a better video title than your usual "Why this Christmas plant should be renamed?"
Yeah I agree
Or the "You'll never guess the genocidal history of this plant"
Ron DeSantis would call this video "Unamerican" when the reality is that all Americans should know exactly how our country came to be
This was fascinating. My partner brought home a tiny plant from her office seven years ago this week, and we now own an enormous cuetlaxochitl shrub that blooms red once a year. It’s so large, it takes almost the entire year for all of the red leaves to fall. More people should save their office plants!
It is a beautiful and noble plant. Here in México you can see it anywhere, my grandma gave her friend a small plant (Coincidentally seven years ago too) from a shrub of her villa, and when we got to see her friend on this year, that little branch became another beautiful shrub.
@@luissantiagomijareso.2450 I meant, we want to see YOUR noche buena. I'm from Mexico as well :)
Point-set-tia
This is how I hear everyone say it.
Mispronounce it entirely if you disapprove of him.
Point-say-shuh
Or just say it wrong? I like this one
"His legacy is tainted." literally describes every human being that has ever or will ever live. Stop putting famous people on pedestals.
Thank you for this!
As a history major, I know how hard it is to find interesting stories like these. Thanks vox for sharing another interesting story.
Flame Leaf is a cool name...
I wanna use it now...
I'm sorry to say, but the new name will never catch on. It's far too difficult for the average English speaker to spell and no one will ever pronounce it correctly.
I fail to see any true benefit to renaming this plant. Poinsett was a fairly typical man by 19th-century standards - there were far worse people in his time. I know some might disagree, but I don't think he committed any major atrocities that would justify a name change.
What would we be accomplishing by renaming the poinsettia? What's the point of damning the memory of a long-dead man whose legacy has been forgotten by the average American?
Subscribed because my bud Jason Smith in Alaska turned me on to this channel 😊
Interesting video, but I find it a bit exhausting to examine the etymology of every word and name for things and find “problematic” things about names and therefore change established terms for these obscure reasons. It seems ridiculous to hold historical figures to 21st century standards
Lol so you would rather continue the ignorant and toxic cycle that eurocentricity has caused by renaming things that have ALREADY HAD ESTABLISHED TERMS before some white folk stole them. Coolcoolcool
Yes. By this standard the capitol of the US should change its name. A few states should change their names. Washington is problematic. Columbia is problematic. Georgia is problematic. York is problematic. Like everything and everyone named before 2022 is problematic.
on one hand I agree, but on the other hand, it is a good history learning opportunity, so a case could be made for making these people with these named things kinda right their wrongs by educating a future generation as to the unjust history in humanity's past.
In terms of names, I think there's better targets, the budgie/budgerigar being a good example. Why does it get called a "parakeet" in the US? It's one of the few Aboriginal words to actually make it into international English, so I think a focus on recognising that & retaining it has much more meaning than changing flowers names cause the person who popularised it was a duck (with an i), especially when "parakeet" is the generic name for small parrots, so is confusing when one country uses it to sometimes mean a particular bird within that family, not the whole family too. There's plenty of other examples of similar words that have clear Indigenous origins still in use & able to be increased in use to retain at least bits of those languages too.
The woke agenda never ceases to find something to get upset about .
Fortunately, you finding it tiresome isn’t a measure of anything other than ease with the current state.
Plenty of people find centuries of cultural problems exhausting, and you don’t get the stronger claim just because you prefer the problems as they are.
What a ludicrous take.
Rename it.
Cuetlaxochitl is probably way too hard for euro language speakers to pronounce, so…. Maybe meet half way and call it Mexican star or noche buena.
And thank you for the history. I’m very grateful as someone who is Mexican.