Day Lilly
Description:
A leafless stalk bearing
several orange, funnel-shaped flowers and rising above sword-like,
basal leaves.
Flowers:
3 1/2" wide; sepals
3, net-veined, erect; petals 3, erect, with wavy edges;
stamens 6.
1-3' long, narrow,channeled.
Fruit:
Many-seeded capsule.
Height:
2-4'.
Flowering:
May-July.
Habitat:
Roadsides, meadows, and
woodland borders.
Comments:
This native of Eurasia
was introduced to our gardens and has escaped from cultivation. Apparently
a hybrid, it does not set fertile seed but reproduces vegetatively form,
with more than the usual number of sepals and petals, is more common.
Every part of the plant is mild and edible; the flower buds taste like
green beans when cooked and served with butter. A smaller, yellow-flowered
species, Yellow Day Lilly, has also escaped from cultivation; it, too,
is edible.