Wild Poinsettia is a Florida native plant that will add splashes of color to your garden without overpowering it. The dark green leaves can be oval or indented on the sides as though someone squeezed them. Some have a splash of red that looks painted on, thus the common name "Painted Leaf."

This black butterfly with yellow stripes is a Zebra Longwing, the Florida state butterfly. Once in a while they stop to enjoy a meal on my Wild Poinsettia flowers. So did this dotted White Peacock butterfly:

Wild Poinsettia isn't as showy as the kind sold during the holidays, but it has a certain home grown charm. There's a spot in my yard where so many Australian Pine saplings grew that I'll never get the stumps low enough to be lawnmower safe. My Wild Poinsettia volunteered itself there, so I let it grow to cover the stumps. It stopped a bit above knee height, which was perfect to hide the few really big stumps. I was delighted to see butterflies and other small critters nectar on the plant, and when I found the Ello Sphinx Moth Caterpillars chewing it, well - that was the icing on my cake; I like caterpillars! Here's a peek at the Ello Sphinx Moth on my thumb.

If you don't look for the caterpillars, they won't bother you. They cling to the stem and look a lot like just another stem in the foliage. I captured several and raised them in a bug box inside so I could photograph their cocoon and the Ello Sphinx Moth they turn into. I handled them frequently, and they were quite tame and pleasant.

Most plants that provide food to butterflies also feed other little critters. Several Green Bees enjoyed my Poinsettia, as did other bees and wasps.

This bee looks like a honeybee to me:

Paper wasps like the red one above enjoy eating caterpillars. I frequently see them searching my host plants, and sometimes catch them eating one of my butterfly caterpillars. That yellow and black wasp or bee in the corner of the photograph resembles one I saw my Brown Thrasher feed its chick.

Other curious critters have posed for me on my Wild Poinsettia plants too. This black and white bug is an M. Undatus Weevil. They seem to be chewing on everything that grows in my yard.

The red-eyed bug trying to do a head stand is a syrphid fly. Yes, a fly. Somehow I missed these when I learned 'fly' as a child.

I didn't know that hopping bugs came in such splendid colors either! This next tiny bug is a  Chariesterus antennator, a.k.a. Euphorbia bug.

I usually see these orange and black assassin bugs eating other bugs, but as you can see they visit flowers for food as well as to hunt prey. These next bugs, from left to right, are a Cassius Blue Butterfly, a Brown Stinkbug, and a Leaf-footed bug.

So, to sum up the bugs, Wild Poinsettia, Euphorbia heterophylla or cyathophora, is a butterfly nectar plant, a moth host plant, and a food source for important pollinators like honeybees.  It's also a pretty filler plant for any  garden that you want to add a touch of color to, and apparently drought resistant, because after ages of water restrictions here in Florida, mine is still alive and happy. Mine helps crowd out weeds I like less.

It's a keeper. This Polydamas Swallowtail Butterfly thinks so too. The pair of Gulf Fritillary butterflies just used it as a place to hang out while they were busy.

Obviously this plant has a great deal of color variation, but many of the leaves have such a distinctive shape that it's easy to identify even when it's green.