Daylilies are coming!

 Day lilies are sprouting and that means:

DAY LILY flower buds, petals, and tubers [those are the roots] (if you're into cutting [and eating] your crop a little 😅...)

Hemerocallis fulva

sketch by @jenniferwester

My personal favorite here is to eat the flower buds of Hemerocallis fulva (aka Day Lily) sautéed in some olive oil with a bit of good salt sprinkled on top. But PBS suggests making fritters for an especially delicious take. Here is PBS' coverage

And you don't have to do much more digging to find out that there are many other ways to enjoy this vegetative treat!

BUT FIRST: How to identify Day Lilies and remember: 

ALWAYS POSITIVELY IDENTIFY YOUR PLANTS BEFORE EATING THEM

AND take note of the surrounding -- especially when consuming the greens of a plant, you want to make sure the plant has grown in healthy soil as toxins do absorb into many plants from the ground water and soils in which they're growing (another reason to avoid littering and polluting).

Basically: ALWAYS MAKE SURE THAT WHAT YOUR EATING IS EDIBLE AND SAFE

Ok, now that I've reminded you of that:

Hemerocallis spp. aka Daylilies -- most specifically Hemerocallis fulva if you want to avoid any hybrid concoctions that may be less edible is identified by its flower and flat, strap-shape, grass-like foliage that grows in clumps from the ground. Each daylily flower blooms for only 1 day (hence the name) atop thin stalks, or scapes, extending from the base of the plant -- these scapes maybe multi-branched but they have no foliage on them. 

Day Lily foliage before blossoms appear

Take note: there are over 70 types of 'daylilies' ...and this number is only growing with cultivars -- according to the American Daylily Society, the preferred spelling is one word, although my spellcheck wants to separate it into two words and I recommend looking to them for the most comprehensive diagrams on Daylily identification. 

As an aside, apparently it is not just Daylilies, but also True Lilies that are 'edible' (for humans).

True Lily prior to blossoming

"When we say "edible lilies," we are talking about true lilies, members of the genus Lilium. (Daylilies, Hemerocallis, are also edible, and in fact are rather tasty." (Lilypadbulbs.com)

blossom sketch by @jenniferwester

However, when you're looking for edibility, you should remember to always check the official scientific names for the plants you've identified with records of their edibility and medicinal use in humans. Many websites jump to the safe harbor of listing things as toxic if they are toxic to domestic animals such as dogs or cats, or if, when consumed in large doses, have effects that some may find problematic. For instance, lilies are not edible for CATS -- but lucky for both lilies and cats, somehow cats know this and don't eat them.

For humans, the entire plant is documented as edible: bulb, young shoots, flower, and leaves. 

That being said, this post is going to only really focused on daylily edibility because it's WAY too confusing to parse out true lily controversies in the midst of all this daylily talk.

foliage sketch by @jenniferwester

Rhizome tubers are used like turnips or as a potato substitute and dug up before the plants send up stems for the season. So long as you chop a section of tubers from the find and replant them, the crop should regenerate, even with the trimmed root system.

(By the way, if you want to get fancy, and take up the whole true vs. day lily issue again, try this Lily Bulb Confit.) 

Young shoots can be chopped at soil level in the early season of the plant sprouting to be added into stir-fries or pastas. Leda over at Mother Earth News reports that the plants will regenerate from the roots at this stage. Also make sure you really know that you're chopping the right plant -- you do not want to be confusing iris or other non-edible plant shoots for your young lily pickings.

Flowers can be plucked as buds and sautéed or battered and fried for a very tasty veggie side that resembles a cross between asparagus and green beans. If the flowers have already opened, petals can be added to salads for a brightly colored addition to a rich bed of greens! Alternatively, you can also PICKLE the flower buds for a savory flavor and longer storage time. And if you miss the buds, and can't eat all the petals fresh, you can dry petals for later addition to broths and soups!

You can also stuff lilies like you would a squash flower, or candy them as you would other edible flowers! 

Leaves: well...although many references state that daylilies and true lilies are fully edible, I have yet to find a recipe or forager that mentions leaf harvesting or eating the leaves explicitly. I will keep researching, but until I find something I can be confident in trusting, I will avoid leaf eating and opt for extracting leaf fibers for cordage or play with making a dye from the leaves to see what colors emerge as an ink, fiber colorant, or paint.

This blogger made an intense green dye from a lily tea -- albeit using the dried petals rather than the leaves. 

I will attempt her recipe as well as try out these instructions from DavesGarden and a third experiment using mordant and dye techniques in a couple of books I've collected. 

I'll also be using the leaves to make cordage for weavings.

Additionally, according to Mandeplants:

These are not without medicinal uses.  The roots have been found to have some anti-tumor compounds.  The Flowers and leaves have a mild laxative effect, promoting good bowel health.  They are also considered to be anodyne (relieves pain), antiemetic (prevents vomiting), antispasmodic (relaxes muscle spasms and cramps), febrifuge (reduced fevers) and sedative (promotes calm or induces sleep). In Traditional Chinese Medicine this herb is also used to purify the blood. 

In my research, I have found different stances on Lilium and Xanthorrhoeaceae families, the former being the 'true lily' family and the latter being the 'daylily' family. This is understandable as I've seen many times where one must have a specific 'family member' not just anything in an entire family of plants to understand edibility and medicinal uses. This becomes especially true when you consider hybridization and decorative plant evolutions. It seems there are rich histories of medicinal uses from both of these plant families and much further specific investigations will need to be undertaken to find tinctures and other such medicinal methods of working with Day Lily and True Lily plants properly. 

For now what I understand is that there is substantial nutrition in the Day Lily and its a delicious item to add to your menu, with many ways of cooking it. True Lilies are generally also shown to be edible (for humans) based on the data I've cited above. AND given that iris, which is poisonous, grows in similar conditions as day lily and true lily, it's very important to inspect the tubers for a positive identification before harvesting young shoots. 

I hope this little investigative rant/summary is helpful to you! How do you like your day lilies? Do you also eat true lilies? Let me know in the comments!

Last note: Pictures for this post will be updated as I get them in -- there MAY have been a data storage issue I'm currently trying to resolve that has delayed, if not entirely lost, much of my heretofore photographic plant documentation. 😅

All the best,

Jenn