This time of year, Naples residents see poinsettias everywhere, from bank lobbies to grocery stores. Clearly, Americans love to have poinsettias around for the holidays; during the holiday season, poinsettias account for 85 percent of potted plant sales. All told, they ring up more than $220 million in sales each year.

Although they are ubiquitous now, up until the 1950s, poinsettias were actually considered very rare and exotic. In fact, there is an interesting intellectual property-related story behind their explosion in popularity. In short, if a patent had been properly obtained at a key moment in the history of poinsettia-growing in America, the way these plants are grown, sold, distributed and displayed might be entirely different than the way these things are done today.

First, poinsettias are actually native to Mexico, where they are called noche buena, the Spanish term for Christmas Eve (so, a loose translation would be "The Christmas Eve Flower.") Poinsettias were introduced to the U.S. in 1825 by Joseph Poinsett, a former ambassador who was a diplomat to several South American countries. It was he who gave the colorful plants their Anglicized name.

Now, as you can imagine, getting a tropical plant to grow in American in the 1800s was no easy feat, so for years, poinsettias were considered an exotic curiosity. Very few people could grow them and when they could, they could only coax a few into life.

Then came Paul Ecke, a California rancher who fell in love with the plant. Around 1950 or so, he figured out a way to grow poinsettias in a large scale. Because he could grow so many at once and could do so cheaply, average people could suddenly have poinsettias, too. Poinsettias became a huge hit; Ecke even went on "The Bob Hope Show" to discuss them.

Here is where the intellectual property aspect comes in. Many growers tried to figure out what Ecke's method was. If he had opted to patent his growing method, he perhaps could have held on to this lucrative secret longer. As it is, he did not and other horticulturists soon figured out how he was making poinsettias grow. By 1990, Ecke's method was widely known and much-copied by other growers.

As a result, poinsettias are now grown commercially in every state in the U.S. and that much competition has driven prices way down, making them no longer a very lucrative crop for many growers. Although 80 percent of American poinsettias can trace their lineage back to Ecke's ranch, he obviously no longer has the influence over the poinsettia market that he once did.

Source: The University of Illinois Extension Service, "Poinsettia Facts," last accessed Dec. 15, 2011