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Plant Science Today (PST)

Review Articles

Early Access

Micropropagation of poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) by organogenesis: a comprehensive review

DOI
https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.14225
Submitted
24 February 2026
Published
29-09-2026
Versions

Abstract

Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd. ex Klotzsch), a member of the family Euphorbiaceae, is one of the world’s most commercially significant ornamental plants, particularly during the winter holiday season, with annual retail sales exceeding 250 million units in the United States alone. Conventional propagation via stem cuttings, while widely practised, is fundamentally constrained by the risk of pathogen and virus transmission, dependency on seasonal stock plant availability and the inability to meet large-scale commercial demand for disease-free, genetically uniform material. In contrast, micropropagation through organogenesis offers a transformative alternative that is demonstrably superior across multiple parameters: it enables year-round, pathogen-free clonal multiplication of elite genotypes at scale; achieves regeneration efficiencies of 60–90 % depending on explant type and protocol; produces 4–10 shoots per explant per subculture cycle; attains rooting success rates of 75–90 % under optimised conditions; and results in acclimatised plantlet survival exceeding 85–90 %. These quantitative advantages, combined with the capacity to rapidly release new cultivars and provide certified disease-free planting material, make organogenesis-based micropropagation the method of choice for commercial and research applications. This review comprehensively examines the development and optimisation of organogenic micropropagation systems for poinsettia, with particular emphasis on explant selection, surface sterilisation, plant growth regulator (PGR) regimes, culture media composition, callus induction, adventitious shoot organogenesis, shoot proliferation, rooting and ex vitro acclimatisation. The mechanistic basis of cytokinin action, auxin-cytokinin interactions and the physiological rationale for protocol choices are critically discussed. Key milestones from the pioneering work of the early 1970s to contemporary protocols are synthesised, and applications to genetic transformation and crop improvement are addressed. This review aims to serve as a critical, mechanistically grounded reference for researchers and commercial producers working toward efficient and scalable in vitro propagation of poinsettia.

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