Jason E. Andersen

As the holidays approach, you may be confronted with a dilemma — to buy a poinsettia or not. Okay, maybe it won’t be a dilemma, or even a consideration. However, I would guess at least a few of you will have a discussion concerning this festive plant. It will probably take place in the floral department at the grocery store, or perhaps at the dinner table, while looking awkwardly around a poinsettia centerpiece at the person across from you. From the numerous such discussions I have had in my life, I know that the toxicity of the poinsettia will almost certainly come up.

Bonus Fun Fact: It’s a common misconception that the poinsettia is poisonous to children and pets. I’ll give you that a cat or two has died from eating a poinsettia, however, the illness and subsequent death likely wasn’t caused by eating the plant itself, but the pesticides that were used on the plant during cultivation. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, we used lots of aggressive chemicals in agriculture, none of which were fit for consumption. Fortunately, as technology and technique have advanced, these harsh chemicals have been phased out. The poinsettia of today is much safer, but the reputation persists. I learned this from one of my best friends, whose family used to own and operate a poinsettia farm. They even branded their own variety of poinsettia. This makes them as close to a poinsettia expert as one could expect to find.

Now, I am not advocating for holiday poinsettia salads, by the way. By all accounts, they are not good to eat. My internet research (if you trust such a thing) said that someone could ingest maybe 5 leaves before vomiting and, if you were to push through and keep them down, it would take somewhere around 500 leaves to die from toxicity. Please, please do not take that for a challenge.

Anyway, happy holidays.