Daylily

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iDaylily

Hybrid daylily 'Tom Collins'

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Hemerocallidaceae
Genus:	Hemerocallis

Species

See text.

The daylilies comprise the small genus Hemerocallis of flowering plants in the family Hemerocallidaceae. Despite the name they are not true lilies (Lilium, Liliaceae). The name Hemerocallis is based on the Greek words for day and beauty, which reflects the fact that the individual flowers last for only one day. The flowers of most species open at sunrise and wither at sunset, to be replaced by another one (sometimes two or none) on the same stem the next day; some species are night-blooming. Because individual flowers are short-lived, they do not make good cut flowers for formal flower arranging although they otherwise make good cut flowers as new flowers will continue to open on cut stems over several days.

Originally from Eurasia, native from Europe to China, Korea, and Japan, their large showy flowers have made them popular worldwide, and there are over 60,000 registered named cultivars. Only a few cultivars are scented; some will rebloom later in the season, particularly if their developing seed pods are removed.

The alternating lanceolate leaves are grouped into fans (a clump also containing the roots and the crown). The crown of a daylily is the small white portion of the stem, between the leaves and the roots. This crown is an essential part of the fan. Along the scape, proliferations may form at nodes or in bracts. These proliferations form roots when planted and are the exact clones of the parent plant. Some daylilies show spindlelike widenings at the roots, used mostly for water storage.

The flower consists of three petals and three sepals, collectively called tepals, each with a midrib in the same or in a contrasting color. The centermost section of the flower, called the throat, has usually a different and contrasting color. There are six stamens, each with a two-lobed anther. After pollination, the flower forms a pod.

Daylilies can be grown in USDA plant hardiness zones 1 through 11, making them some of the most adaptable landscape plants. Most all of the cultivars have been developed within the last 100 years. The large-flowered clear yellow 'Hyperion', introduced in the 1920s, heralded a return to gardens of the once-dismissed daylily and is still widely available. Daylily breeding has been a specialty above all in the United States, where the heat- and drought-resistant qualities of Hemerocallis made them garden standbys during the later 20th century. New cultivar introductions have sold for thousands of dollars, but sturdy and prolific introductions soon reach reasonable prices.

Hemerocallis fulva, the Tawny Daylily and the sweet-smelling H. lilioasphodelus [H. flava - an illegitime name], the Lemon Lily, were early imports from England to 17th century American gardens that soon established themselves along roadsides. The Tawny Daylily especially is so widely feral that it is often mistaken for a native American wildflower. It gained the nickname "Washhouse" or "Outhouse" lily because it was frequently planted to screen utilitarian buildings.

It should also be noted that Hemerocallis is one of the most hybridized of all garden plants, with registrations of new hybrids being made in the thousands each year. Major breeding lines have begun in the search for new traits, the holy grail of which often being considered, the blue daylily. Much like the elusive 'red Iris' (reffering to a standard tall bearded iris having a pure saturated red color), a blue daylily is a milestone to yet be reached. [Although hybridizers have considerably extended the plant's color range from yellow, orange and pale pink of the species, to vibrant reds, near blacks, near white, greenish tones, purples, lavanders, etc.] Other traits that hybridizers have attempted to select for include (but are not limited to): height, scent, foliage color \ quality \ disease resistance, ability to form large clumps and remain neat in a garden setting, and dormancy vs. evergreen properties (do the leaves die in winter and go into dormancy [similar to hibernation in animals], or does the foliage continue to grow during the colder months of the year?).

[edit] Food uses

Dried golden needles

The flowers of some species are edible and are sold (fresh or dried) in Asian markets as golden needles (金针 in Chinese; pinyin: jinzhēn). They are used in hot and sour soup and moo shu pork. The young green leaves and the tubers of some (but not all^{[citation needed]}) species are also edible. The plant has also been used for medicinal purposes.