"Gilding the lily" so to speak

[urbpan]

In Stop and Shop, I encountered this: live poinsettia plants dusted with glitter. Poinsettia is a nice enough plant, I suppose. A native of South and Central America its red bracts and green leaves have earned it a place alongside holly and yew as vegetable symbols of yuletide. I saw a huge poinsettia plant in an urban yard in Quito, Ecuador, a shrub as big as a typical rhododendron in New England. But in North America, you can almost forget that poinsettia is a living thing--if it weren't for the occasional (false) hysteria about it being a poisonous menace, it would blend into the background of Santas and blinking lights.

And so here it is completely relegated to the role of tacky Christmas decoration; its marketers were not satisfied with its own charms, and so the decoration is itself decorated.



On this day in 365 Urban Species: Green shield lichen. The lichen pictured on this post was on a tree which has since been cut down.

Comments

[dragonwrites.livejournal.com]

not poisonous?

but is is emetic, right?

[dragonwrites.livejournal.com]

agreed: *tacky*

I guess, given that most people can't keep one alive much past New Year's, you might as well paint it. Put the plant out of its misery a little faster. Although here's a thought: silk plants.

As an alien to *that* culture, I must conclude that killing plants is an integral part of the American Christmas celebration.

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

The reason most people can't keep them past New Year's is because they don't water them, because of the misconception that they are a short lived flower, and not a shrub.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It can cause mild stomach upset, but won't make you puke immediately, in most cases.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Not seriously poisonous: yes, it's a good emetic, but it's only dangerous in very large doses. I worry much more about angel trumpets (Datura) in the garden than I do about poinsettias.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Every year, I have coworkers who hear "You know, Paul likes plants" and expect me to take their poinsettias after the Christmas season is done. Now, I'm really not all that fond of the plants to begin with, but it's absolutely impossible to get the colored bracts at the right time of the year without sealing them in black plastic garbage bags all night long. (Seriously: all nurseries that grow poinsettias have blackout shades on their greenhouses to make sure that no stray light gets in, and the best way to get fired as a security guard at such a greenhouse is to use a flashlight or sneak a quick smoke. Even a second of light during that blackout period can ruin an entire greenhouse's worth of plants.) Besides, I've become inordinately fond of Wollemi pines anyway.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I hate Christmas so much is the vast waste of thousands of poinsettia plants and little spruce trees. For some reason it just turns my stomach to see whole plants in the trash.

Wollemi pine, huh? hadn't heard of it before, though i see it's a relative of these crazy things i saw in hawaii:

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Possibly, although I'm not sure about the Hawaiian plant. Wollemis (http://www.ancientpine.com/) are close cousins to the Norfolk Island pine, but with more cycad-like needles. Both have rather soft wood, so decorating them is problematic (at least until they get larger, and Wollemis are very slow growing), but at least they're likely to be preserved long past Christmas. The Czarina bought me one for my birthday this year, and I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like when it's 25 or so.

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

I have a Cook's Pine, a relative of the Wollemis. :)

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

I agree that it's horrible - but it IS pretty! :P

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

That is one of the tackiest things I've seen all week.

[ndozo.livejournal.com]

I thought they grew like that.

[buboniclou.livejournal.com]

I thought I knew what tacky was, and then you went and posted this.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Eww! I remember last year seeing small real conifer bushes in pots with mock snow sprayed on them. I couldn't believe the tackyness

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

They do make nice, pretty houseplants if you care for them properly. My grandmother has had one for several years.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

I've also seen poinsettias painted blue and purple. I've developed an intense dislike for poinsettias; they're just not pretty IMO. I much prefer amaryllis as decorative holiday plants.

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

That's just... annoying. I tried to save three (two have since died) from a display at my former work last year - we were allowed to take them home. The one remaining is in really good shape. I think what most people "forget" is these are indeed living things, and they do not WATER them, because they do not need it. After all they're 'just' seasonal.