在圣诞节期间，如果你在美国放眼四望，你到处都能看到一品红（poinsettias）[又名圣诞花]的装饰。

这种漂亮的节日标志原本生长于墨西哥，19世纪早期首次种植于美国。当时美国驻墨西哥首任大使乔尔·罗伯茨·波因塞特（Joel Roberts Poinsett）注意到这种植物并把它带回他在南卡罗莱纳州的温室中栽培。后来，历史学家兼园艺学家威廉·普雷斯科特（William Prescott）把这个拉丁学名为Euphorbia pulcherrima的一品红以波因塞特来命名，以纪念这位大使的发现。美国人很快爱上了一品红花色艳丽的苞片（修剪过的叶片）。如今，在圣诞节前后的六周期间，人们购买这种花卉的数量已超过 6000万株。

Mexico’s enduring Christmas gift arrived in the United States in the early 1800s.

In the United States, everywhere you look during the Christmas season, you will see poinsettias.

A native of Mexico, this beautiful icon of the holiday first arrived in the United States in the early 1800s, when Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, took notice of the plant and brought it back to his greenhouse in South Carolina. Later, William Prescott, a historian and horticulturist, gave Euphorbia pulcherrima Poinsett’s name, in honor of the ambassador’s discovery. Americans quickly fell in love with the poinsettia’s brilliantly colored bracts (modified leaves), and today they buy more than 60 million of the plants during the six weeks surrounding Christmas.