Daylily

, Rhode Island. '') in China Hemerocallis are herbaceous clump-forming perennials growing from rhizomes, some produce spreading stolons. They have a fibrous or fibrous-tuberous root system with contractile roots. The tuberous roots are used to store nutrients and water. The arching leaves are produced from the base of the plant (basal) and lack petioles, Typically Hemerocallis flowers have three similar petals and three sepals, collectively called tepals, and each have a midrib. The centermost part of the flower, called the throat, may be a different color than the more distal areas of the tepals. Each flower has six stamens joined to the perianth tube, each with a two-lobed anther. The unequal stamen filaments are curved upward with the linear-oblong anthers dorsifixed. The superior ovary is green, with three chambers and the stigma is 3-lobed or capitate. The fruit is a capsule (often erroneously called a pod since botanical pods are found in Fabaceae). The fruits may have no seeds (sterile), or many relatively large, shiny, black, roundish seeds. The flowers of most species open in early morning and wither during the following night, possibly replaced by another one on the same scape the next day. Some species are night-blooming. The haploid number of chromosomes is eleven. ==Taxonomy==

Despite their common name, daylilies are not true lilies (plants from the genus Lilium, family Liliaceae). Although the flowers of Hemerocallis and Lilium species have a similar shape, their growth habits, stems and leaf shapes are distinctive. Before 2009, the scientific classification of daylilies put them into the family Liliaceae. In 2009, under the APG III system, daylilies were removed from the family Liliaceae and assigned to the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae. Xanthorrhoeaceae was renamed in 2017 to Asphodelaceae in the APG IV system Species '') , Plants of the World Online recognized 16 species: • Hemerocallis × exilis Satake = H. fulva var. angustifolia × H. thunbergii • Hemerocallis × fallaxlittoralis Konta & S.Matsumoto = H. littorea × H. thunbergii A number of hybrid names appear in the horticultural literature but are not recognized as valid by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. These include: • H. × hybrida • H. × ochroleuca • H. × stoutiana • H. × traubara, H. × traubiana • H. × washingtonia • H. × yeldara, H. × yeldiana Etymology The name Hemerocallis comes from the Greek words (hēmera) "day" and (kalos) "beautiful". ==Distribution and habitat==

Hemerocallis species are native to Asia, primarily eastern Asia, including China, Korea, Japan and southern Siberia. This genus is popular worldwide because of the showy flowers and hardiness of many kinds. There are over 80,000 registered cultivars. Hundreds of cultivars have fragrant flowers, and more scented cultivars are appearing more frequently in northern hybridization programs. Some earlier blooming cultivars rebloom later in the season, particularly if their capsules, in which seeds are developing, are removed. Daylilies have been found growing wild for millennia throughout China, Mongolia, northern India, Korea, and Japan. There are thousand-year-old Chinese paintings showing orange daylilies that are remarkably similar to the flowers that grace modern gardens. Daylilies may have been first brought to Europe by traders along the silk routes from Asia. However it was not until 1753 that daylilies were given their botanic name of Hemerocallis by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus. Daylilies were first brought to North America by early European immigrants, who packed the roots along with other treasured possessions for the journey to the New World. By the early 1800s, the plant had become naturalized, and a bright orange clump of flowers was a common sight in many homestead gardens. The orange or tawny daylily (Hemerocallis fulva), common along roadsides in much of North America, is native to Asia. Along with the lemon lily (Hemerocallis flava), it is the foundational species for most modern cultivars. ==Cultivation==

As popular as daylilies were for many hundreds of years, it was not until the late 19th century that botanists and gardeners began to experiment with hybridizing the plants. Over the next hundred years, thousands of different hybrids were developed from only a few wild varieties. In fact, most modern hybrids are descended from two types of daylily. One is Hemerocallis flava—the yellow lemon lily. The other is Hemerocallis fulva, the familiar tawny-orange daylily, also known affectionately as the "ditch lily". The daylily has been nicknamed "the perfect perennial" by gardeners, due to its brilliant colors, ability to tolerate drought and frost and to thrive in many different climate zones, and for being generally low maintenance. It is a vigorous perennial that lasts for many years in a garden, with very little care and adapts to many different soil and light conditions. Daylilies are not commonly used as cut flowers for formal flower arranging, yet they make good cut flowers otherwise, as new flowers continue to open on cut stems over several days. Cultivars There are more than 100,000 daylily cultivars, the milestone having been achieved in 2024 Hemerocallis fulva 'Europa', H. fulva 'Kwanso', H. fulva 'Kwanso Variegata', H. fulva 'Kwanso Kaempfer', H. fulva var. maculata, H. fulva var. angustifolia, and H. fulva 'Flore Pleno' are all triploids that almost never produce seeds and reproduce almost solely by underground runners (stolons) and dividing groups by gardeners. A polymerous daylily flower is one with more than three sepals and more than three petals. Although some people synonymize "polymerous" with "double", some polymerous flowers have as many as twice the normal number of sepals and petals. Formerly daylilies were only available in yellow, pink, fulvous (bronzed), and rosy-fulvous colors, now they come in an assortment of many more color shades and tints thanks to intensive hybridization. They can now be found in nearly every color except pure blue and pure white. Those with yellow, pink, and other pastel flowers may require full sun to bring out all of their colors; darker varieties, including many of those with red and purple flowers are not colorfast in bright sun. Daylily -- Hemerocallis 'Ruby Spider'.jpg|H. 'Ruby Spider' Orange Daylily.jpg|H. 'Kwanzo' – a triple-flowered triploid cultivar RedDaylily.jpg|H. 'Red Magic' Daylily -- Hemerocallis 'Wayside King Royale'.jpg|H. 'Wayside King Royale' Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus flower.jpg|A Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus cultivar growing in Venezuela Awards The highest award a cultivar can receive in the United States is the Stout Silver Medal, given in memory of Dr. Arlow Burdette Stout, who is considered to be the father of modern daylily breeding in North America. This annual award—as voted by American Hemerocallis Society (AHS) Garden judges—can be given only to a cultivar that has first received the Award of Merit not less than two years previously. The 2014 winner of the Stout Silver Medal is 'Webster's Pink Wonder', hybridized by Richard Webster and introduced by R. Cobb. A complete list of Stout Silver Medal winners can be seen on the AHS website. In the UK the following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit: It is a pest within the horticultural trade in several parts of the world, including Southern and Eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. ==Toxicity==

Eating too many uncooked flowers of some species can cause diarrhea. Hemerocallis species are toxic to cats and ingestion may be fatal. Treatment is usually successful if started before kidney failure has developed. ==Uses==

Daylilies are an economically important group of plants used medicinally, as food, and as horticultural plants. They have been cultivated in East Asia starting in China for thousands of years. They are sold fresh or dried in Asian markets as gum jum (金针 in Chinese; pinyin: jīn zhēn) or yellow flower vegetables (黃花菜 in Chinese; pinyin: huáng huā cài). These are used in hot and sour soup, daylily soup (金針花湯), Buddha's delight, and moo shu pork. The tubers and young leaves of H. fulva can be eaten raw or cooked. The flowers are more palatable upon cooking. ==See also==