Hemerocallis fulva


Hemerocallis fulva, the orange day-lily, tawny daylily, corn lily, tiger daylily, fulvous daylily or ditch lily, is a species of daylily native to Asia. It is very widely grown as an ornamental plant in temperate climates for its showy flowers and ease of cultivation. It is not a true lily in the genus Lilium, but gets its name from the similarity of the flowers and from the fact that each flower lasts only one day.

Biology

It is an herbaceous perennial plant growing from tuberous roots, with stems tall. The leaves are linear, long and broad. The flowers are across, orange-red, with a pale central line on each tepal; they are produced from early summer through late autumn on scapes of ten through twenty flowers, with the individual flowers' opening successively, each one only lasting one day. The fruit is a three-valved capsule long and broad which splits open at maturity to release the seeds.
Both diploid and triploid forms are known in the wild, but most cultivated plants are triploids which rarely produce seeds and primarily reproduce vegetatively by stolons or division. At least four botanical varieties are recognized, including the typical triploid var. fulva, the diploid, long-flowered var. angustifolia, the triploid var. kwanzo, where the stamens are modified into additional petals, and the evergreen var. aurantiaca.

Distribution

Orange daylily is native to Asia from the Caucasus east through the Himalaya to China, Japan, and Korea. Orange daylily persists where planted, making them a very good garden plant.
Hemerocallis fulva var. fulva has escaped from cultivation across much of the United States and parts of Canada and has become a weedy or invasive species. It persists also where dumped and spreads more or less rapidly by vegetative increase into woods and fields and along roadsides and ditches, hence the common name ditch lily. It forms dense stands that exclude native vegetation, and is often so common that it is mistaken for a native species.

Edibility

The flowers, leaves, and tubers of the orange daylily are edible. Leaves and shoots can be eaten raw or cooked when very young. The flowers and young tubers can also be eaten raw or cooked. The flowers can be dried and used as a thickener in soup. The cooked flower buds, served with butter, taste like green beans.