The poinsettia has long been a symbol of the holiday season in the United States and Europe.
However, its namesake, Joel Roberts Poinsett, is now under scrutiny, according to the Associated Press, which says he, and by association the flower, have a “checkered past.”
Poinsett, an amateur botanist and statesman, discovered the plant in southern Mexico in 1828, during his tenure as the first U.S. minister to the newly independent Mexico.
He sent clippings of the plant to South Carolina and a botanist in Philadelphia, who named it after him.
However, Poinsett’s checkered history and his role in the forced removal of Native Americans from their land have led people to question the use of his name.
Poinsett was a slaveholder on a rice plantation in the U.S. As a secretary of war, he played a part in the forced removal of Native Americans, including the westward relocation of Cherokee populations to Oklahoma known as the “Trail of Tears.”
As more people learn of its namesake’s complicated history, the name “poinsettia” has become less attractive in the United States, according to the Associated Press.
