The Florentine Codex, Book 11, folios 192r-v, includes images and descriptions of the acuilloxochitl and the cuilloxochitl, which are apparently two ways of naming the same flower. One of the marked features is the way it encircles, "continually spreads in circles," which may resemble writing or painting (note the root "cuil"). The author speaks of spreading the blossoms on the ground, threading and stringing them [which adds another circling dimension]. (Summary by SW.)
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 11, fol. 192v. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/192v?spTexts=&nhTexts= . Accessed 26 November 2025.