Now four years later, Le Duc is assistant professor of horticulture, forestry and recreation resources at K-State. Down the hallway and a flight of steps from Le Duc's office, around a corner and through a locked greenhouse door, Le Duc keeps two tubs with shrubby six- foot specimens of the poinsettia directly from the hills of Guerrero, Mexico. The quest for the snow white Euphorbia cornastra began on the back roads of Mexico with Le Duc and two other graduate students. There is a wrong turn in the road. A native sitting on a stoop stitching soccer balls becomes the guide.
Mud slides block the narrow road to remote mountains.
A truck filled with armed patrollers blazes a path through the mud slide. The students seize the opportunity and continue into the mountains. The colleague searches the crags with binoculars for the prize. A treacherous hike and hours later the colleague returns with the specimen. Le Duc and the other two botany students break for civilization before nightfall.