poinsettia

plural poinsettias

1. A plant, Euphorbia pulcherrima, with rather small and insignificant flowers surrounded by large bright red leaves; native to Mexico and Central America and widely cultivated as a garden plant; widely used in Christmas floral displays.

   “So red,” she said of the poinsettias behind Florencia, which Jacquie didn’t even like because of how even the real ones look fake.

   2018, Tommy Orange, “Jacquie Red Feather”, in There There, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 99

   1 more example

   Masses of scarlet Poinsettias glowed bravely against the dark green background formed by broad-leafed plantains, whose great tattered leaves rustled with every gust of wind that reached them.

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 22

   Synonyms: Christmas star, Mexican flame leaf