Spectator competition winners: how the poinsettia became – origin stories of flowers

In Competition No. 3315, you were invited to invent a legend that explains the origin and nature of a flower other than a sunflower or narcissus, whose well-known origin story tells of Narcissus, the beautiful youth who draws the vengeance of the gods, falls in love with his own reflection in the waters of a spring and, in Ovid’s version, wastes away, the flower that bears his name springing up where he died.

The winners below take £25.

‘I will come to you,’ said the young man, ‘under cover of darkness. Wait by the sea-cliff’s rocky edge, where I will surprise you.’

‘But come to me in folds of silk, a tapestry on your tongue,’ said the nymph. ‘For your beautiful robes catch everyone’s eye. I am half in love with the way they cling.’

‘No, dear lady,’ replied the youth. ‘Though pretty in pink, I need wear no finery in the dark. I do not care for ostentation. I shall be yours as a plain fellow, or never yours at all.’

‘When we are married,’ she cried that evening, hunting shadows, ‘you shall wear cloth of gold.’

‘No need, go to no expense on my account,’ said his voice. She started; sensed him falling backwards; heard his body breaking on the rocks. And ever after, a pink flower grew where he fell, and its name was Thrift.

Bill Greenwell

In the forests of Phrygia on the slopes of the sacred mountain lived a beautiful dryad who was noted for the colourful clothes she wore at special festivals. Her name was Poinsettia, and she attracted the attention of Zeus. Zeus’s wife, Hera, noticed this relationship but she was equally captivated by the dryad’s scarlet garments, and suggested that she should come and live with her. Poinsettia was an innocent, trusting young dryad, so she moved into Hera’s palace, where people admired her colourful dress for a while.