Lily roots are, for the most part, bulbs consisting of oblong or arrowhead-shaped scales. Here's the DAYLILY, Hemerocallis fulva var. The most amazing example I found of this lack of updating was on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) website, where the old taxonomy continues to be published, whereas on another page on the very same website discusses a study done in 2004 that states, “All parts of the daylily (Hemerocallis sp.) Amid the current public health and economic crises, when the world is shifting dramatically and we are all learning and adapting to changes in daily life, people need wikiHow more than ever. However, this controversy over newer daylily hybrids is absolutely new to me. Tiger lily is toxic and not edible, however, daylily is edible. About Euell Gibbons, there was a rumor, I don't know if it was ever confirmed, that he died eating foraged foods. According to your photographs, I'm pretty sure that these flowers were the edible daylilies, but I doubt I'll try them again! I'm delighted when I write something and readers tell me it's important and it shows them something new. Fascinating research, m'dear. As for the Latin terms, I was graced by Juliet from Castanea (you can find her blog by following the link under the pic of daylily roots) to help me sort out the taxonomy. The great thing about daylilies is that there is always something to eat from this plant all year round. But never use them fresh. Stella de Oro daylilies at the peak of their spring bloom. However, by bulbil it takes three years for them to mature. Cutting Daylily Flower Scapes Each daylily flower scape can hold many flower pods, but the time comes every year when all the pods on a scape have bloomed and died. % of people told us that this article helped them. This article has been viewed 9,942 times. The information presented here is to help you decide whether to incorporate daylilies (Hemerocallis) into your diet. When you harvest daylily tubers, leave a few tubers attached to the roots. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on June 22, 2012: Stephanie Henkel, thanks for sharing this great story. They are at their best in late fall or winter after they have stored nutrients from summer growth. @Pamela-anne, I know what you mean about enjoying them in the garden but not necessarily in the garden salad. I've served day-lilies in salads at the Bicycle Inn. There were hundreds of them growing along the roadside, so I just went out and picked a bunch, dipped them in batter and fried 'em up. There's so much trouble for a house cat to get into when it escapes. :) Great hub! The daylily foliage looks like a fan of long and strappy grass-like leaves emanating from the base of the plant. The roots will continue producing new shoots. I'm so sorry to hear about Boo. :). I know there are various flowers that can be eaten and I think that really is the point as you mentioned, there are so many cross bred flowers not many of us know which ones are safe to eat or not, this was really interesting, and I love the photos too, cheers nell. You may want to check out this list and its accompanying text from the Colorado State Extension Service. Resources are conflicting and difficult to navigate because of the misunderstanding of the Hemerocallis taxonomy and also because of the huge number of Hemerocallis hybrids which have been developed in recent years. Stephanie Henkel from USA on June 22, 2012: Loved your hub, though I may still be a little confused by all the Latin names you've incorporated into your article! Bottom line, the daylilies didn't kill you after all. By using our site, you agree to our. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on June 28, 2012: LOL, trish1048, where's your sense of adventure? take care pam. I'm calling 911!”. You have eaten flowers if you have ever eaten cauliflower, broccoli or artichokes. They can eat the whole top off of a lily in very short order. You can tell the difference between a daylily and a lily such as the tiger, Easter, and Asian lilies mentioned earlier (lilies in the genus Lilium and the lilies most commonly confused with daylilies) by looking at them as they present above the ground and below. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on June 23, 2012: Thanks, Nell Rose, for your kind words. Sherri has expertise in landscape design. They are such a nice vehicle for a fried batter. Deborah Brooks Langford from Brownsville,TX on June 22, 2012: I had no idea you can eat day lilies very interesting... b. Malin, thanks so much for your awesome comment. Daylily flowers tend to point themselves up from their stems, while lily flowers usually, although not always (as in the above photo of the tiger lily from the Liliaceae family), have a more pendulous aspect, dipping down from their stems. Every day at wikiHow, we work hard to give you access to instructions and information that will help you live a better life, whether it's keeping you safer, healthier, or improving your well-being. We know ads can be annoying, but they’re what allow us to make all of wikiHow available for free. Dandelions are as adventurous as I get :) Unless, of course, you want to count the times I've eaten mud, bugs, grass (and no, not the funny kind) and swallowed gallons of nasty ocean water. The lily from the family Liliaceae, commonly called "Tiger Lily". Very informative! Apparently, from the literature, not all can tolerate them, like some can't tolerate lactose. I think I will stick to dandelion wine, thanks :). In order to make a simple batter, mix together 1 cup (236 ml) of flour, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. Beautiful on top of a colourful salad! Although people around the world have been eating daylilies for hundreds (perhaps thousands) of years, this nutritious food has never made it into the mainstay of Western cooking. They do not. Add the flowers and/or shoots to a  salad. The plant is in the Asphodelaceae family. Those of us in the West who know how to enjoy daylilies as food have learned to do so through family and community traditions, but most of us will never see a daylily stir-fry or a daylily breakfast hash on any restaurant menu or in any mainstream cookbook. You can eat the beans of these trailing plants and the flowers, too. A house kitty just doesn't have the experience to avoid trouble, and its nine lives run out quickly. I think it's hard to learn to eat things outside our early experiences. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on August 14, 2012: LOL, Martie. You could also try adding a protein source, such as chicken, beef, or shrimp. Let me watch you cook the plant. And thanks so much for sharing and the good votes. Always be make sure you are 100% sure you have correctly identified a plant species before eating it. Cool Hub! One of my favourite wild edibles! Truth be told, daylilies can be interesting to eat, and there are lots of good recipes on the web, but I like to just go munch the flowers raw right off the scape. Very interesting read filled with info I did not know; the illustrations are quite helpful....I had no idea people ate day lilies. They are crunchy and mildly "green" flavored (maybe like grass or fresh hay)...I can see why cats would like them. My tiger lilies are in bloom right now and I do enjoy looking at them, but I don't think I want to eat them so I'll pass on that-- but I voted this fabulous hub up and useful, interesting and awesome. Use caution when eating daylilies Make sure it is a daylily (Hemerocallis) and not a poisonous Asiatic lily or something else. Peggy Woods from Houston, Texas on July 18, 2012: Interesting hub for sure! Experts say the safest way to eat edible flowers is to grow them yourself. William E Krill Jr from Hollidaysburg, PA on June 19, 2012: Wow. The blog post is short. Wait…it will get worse when we talk about purported daylily toxicity related to felines, bovines, and humans later on in this article. If their pretty I buy them and put them in the ground. Roses and lotuses are not common foods here, and so you bring that good experience from your country to this discussion. I have heard that many ate different flowers for their unique tastes and flavors. :). :) Thank you, my friend, for reading and commenting. An engaging hub with all the reasons of this pretty flower being a strong topic of debate! As for making dinner of the daylilies growing in your flower garden, well, how about a tiny appetizer? Daylilies can give some people an upset stomach. I now look forward to Following your Hubs. . The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) states definitively that daylilies are poisonous to cats and cows, although it cites no scientific sources and at the same time describes Hemerocallis as belonging to the Liliaceae family. Shasta Matova from USA on December 04, 2012: This is really interesting - I had no idea that daylilies were edible, or that there was so much debate on the topic. Plants are on August 31, 2012: Great hub! Pamela-anne from Miller Lake on June 19, 2012: Awesome hub really enjoyed this info something I never knew people ate but for now I will just enjoy their beauty in the garden not in my garden salad loved the pics too! http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07237.htm... Table 2 lists edible flowers by their Latin names, although it offers no pictures. (Photo: Signe Langford) Freshly opened, the flowers are comparable in taste to sweet iceberg lettuce. So glad you found this interesting! Many Liliaceae species, including that toxic tiger lily just mentioned (along with the commonly named Easter and Asian lilies), have long been known to be harmful to forms of animal life including humans, and so some came to assume that daylilies shared the specific toxic properties of lilies. What a vast store of knowledge you have on the subject ST-- amazing. Why? @Dardia, I did not know spiderwort was edible. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on August 21, 2012: Thank you, ishwaryaa22, for your comment. Deer would pull up the newly planted seedlings and eat the roots first. The first two paragraphs made my head swim. I've always wanted to try eating daylilies but now you have me thinking. Subkingdom: Tracheobionta (Vascular plants), Superdivision: Spermatophyta (Seed plants), Division: Magnoliophyta (Flowering plants). I grow both of them in my flowers garden in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are the best-tasting part of the plant. Daylily flowers have a sweet flavour and can actually be enjoyed raw. There are a surprising number of flowers which are edible. The differences in the term "Daylilies is Amazing...and I too, didn't know any of them could be Edible. Eat flowers you have grown yourself, or know to be safe for consumption. One of my favorites is the chive flower (wrote a hub about that), spicy and dicey like the nasturtium, a perfect addition to a fresh green salad. Thanks for an interesting article! I once took a Chinese cooking class and one of the recipes called for tiger lilies, but that's the extent of my lily eating. Botanist Dr. Peter A. Gail, an expert in daylily and other edible foraged foods, advises that humans approach the consumption of daylilies with caution. Thanks for reading and commenting, Debbie. Those must be the reasons I don't feel daring, brave or adventurous :). Voted up! I love a bit of controversy! In the late Fall and Winter (as well as all year round) you can eat the tubers (root nodules), in the Spring the young shoots are edible and delicious as a stir fry, and in … I hope you give them a try next season. :) Until I started researching daylily recipes, I didn't realize there was a conflict, either. You can use those to propagate the lily or the tubers. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. If you’ve ever eaten daylily roots, you’ll know why. @AudreyHowitt, thank you so much for your lovely comment. Unfortunately, many sources on the web and elsewhere have not taken this change of scientific classification into account. Until that affirming day, use your judgment, informed by the information referenced in this article and by the advice of real-life daylily-eaters you know, before you introduce this nutritious and beautiful plant into your diet. I'd love to know what you think. Daylily tubers should be harvested between late fall and early spring. Picked them toward evening when the flowers were closed up. Just a small section of the main border – daylilies are crowding out everything else. The more lengthy comments are worth reading, especially the comments from dynochic( Jan) which illuminate the confusion caused by continuing to include daylilies in the Liliaceae family and offer interesting although unconfirmed evidence that daylilies are not poisonous to cats. Daylily flowers and tubers are high in protein, and the flower buds are high in beta carotene and vitamin C. All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. You definitely did your research. Dahlia – Most people don’t realize that dahlias are closely related sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes, or that you also can eat dahlia bulbs (corms). Daylily tubers are also edible, and can be used like fingerling potatoes. Just … Glad you found this interesting, and thank you for the votes. Eat just one flower the first time to see how you react. If you really can’t stand to see another ad again, then please consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow. I love & enjoy this real interesting hub, which provides important information how to identify edible daylily and other non edible lilies plants. Please consider making a contribution to wikiHow today. With all that out of the way, here's  10 ways to eat daylilies: Use the flower as an edible   garnish  for soups, cakes, and salads. But then, I'd always known the difference between a lily and a daylily and knew better not to eat the former. Daylily roots consist of tubers and fibrous roots. Eat the flowers raw. As of now, too much controversy exists about the daylily being a safe food. What an amazing Hub! Thanks for reading and commenting... daylilies grow in your climate, you know. Dip the buds into the batter and then fry in oil for approximately one minute, or until the buds are crisp. This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. References. Any newly introduced food may trigger an allergic reaction, or, any food eaten in excess may have an adverse effect on a specific individual; however, neither an allergic reaction nor an intolerance to a certain food indicates that the food is classified as poisonous. Should we be eating them? Sample a small amount to see how your body reacts before indulging in a large portion. Deborah Neyens from Iowa on July 16, 2012: Interesting hub. Daylily Daylilies are maybe the best example of flowers you have seen in all your neighbors’ yards, without any idea of what they were called, and certainly with no clue that you could eat them. Most edible flowers are best eaten raw—simply pick and rinse with water. Voting up and clicking the facebook like button. However, I do go grazing in the garden and eat a fresh blossom now and again just to celebrate that a beautiful flower can be appreciated by more senses than just smell and vision. The colchicine easy to resolve in water, you need steam the daylily buds and dry them before cook to eat. Thanks for SHARING. This will help remove any insects that may be inside the leaves or petals. I'm sure there is extensive information from UK sources on the web as well. You can eat these raw or cooked. You can cook with a variety of different components of the daylily plant and there are a variety of different dishes that can be made from the daylily. Rinse daylilies with water before cooking. I love tiger lilies and day lilies and never thought they could be edible. You can eat all parts of the plant: seeds, flowers, and leaves. Digging up the plants means you don’t get flowers, but since daylilies, especially the common orange variety, can be invasive, you may need to thin out your What you can be sure of is this: If a lily-looking flower has a down-hanging aspect, with its petals curled upwards, then it’s not a daylily. In my country, they used roses and lotuses in some of their dishes. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 9,942 times. I look forward some day soon to writing an article about eating daylilies where I can affirm that not only are they good for you, they are completely safe to eat. What They Eat Voles prefer vegetation, including tubers, roots, your daylily bulbs and other favorites, grasses and herbaceous plants, including stems, foliage and flowers. Audrey Howitt from California on October 03, 2012: I did not even know that there was a conflict about this--I found your article so informative and so beautifully laid out--. It pleases me to know that others are open to the idea of learning not only the subtle differences between flowers but also are open to the idea of exploring new food sources. As with all new and exciting adventures you approach, begin with moderation. I know “tiger lily” as a name applied to two different plants, one a daylily (the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae) and one a lily (the family Liliaceae). We use cookies to make wikiHow great. Think I'll continue to just admire rather than ingest them. Chinese have been eaten daylily buds for thousands of years. Hemerocallis (daylily) flower stalks are leafless, and the main, strap-like leaves are up to two feet long and grow from the base of the plant. :) I'm glad to hear daylilies have wonderful lives in South Africa. I think that I would rather have the beauty of them blooming in the yard rather than looking towards them as a food source. You did a very good job of how to distinguish one from the other and may have saved my life. To enjoy their full goodness, you should eat the flowers the same day they are picked. I do not think I would ever eat day lilies, but your hub and the images, the info you gathered, is work well done. The differences are easy to see once you know them. That leaves a gardener with a choice. wikiHow is where trusted research and expert knowledge come together. A friend of mine has planted them for erosion control...once these beauties establish themselves, it takes a tsunami to dislodge them. Things to look for: daylily blooms face up, true lilies (like the similarly colored tiger lily) face downward, although there are a few true-lily exceptions that face up, like the Pine Lily (Lillium catesbaei), native to Florida and southeast coast. Darlene Yager from Michigan on October 03, 2012: Daylilies have a slightly sweet aromatic flavor. Let me define the reasons for controversy in order to help you sort out your own thinking about whether you should eat this flower. Daylily flowers only bloom for 1 day, so you will need to eat them shortly after picking them. But for your post I might have confused them going forward with tiger lilies and accidentally killed myself. If y'all haven't tried daylilies for food, I hope this hub gives you the information you need to make a decision. If you buy from a farmer’s market or a farmer, ask them directly if they used any chemicals. Daylilies are chosen as ornamental Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on June 27, 2012: LOL, billybuc, about the nasturtiums. :) Take a look here: http://lilylanefarm.com/daylilies2.html. I might have to try to taste one next summer. I'll bet you could add to that body of knowledge. I've also had cats living in day-lilies. The first is generally agreed to be safe to eat, while the second is well-documented as being toxic to animal forms including human. If so, you may have slugs. Eat flowers you know to be consumable — if you are uncertain, consult a reference book on edible flowers and plants. Thank you. I may never have to go to the supermarket again. I ate a bunch of them about 35 years ago..Sauteed them in a little butter and they were fabulous. The fresh ones content a chemical “colchicine”, itself is not poisonous, but once it go into animal’s body it becomes toxic. Prior to 2009, the scientific classification of daylilies put them into the family Liliaceae. Much of the confusion of whether daylilies are safe to eat is caused by the semantic legacy surrounding the word “lily.” The common names “daylily” and “lily” have become, at some times and in some places in the world, interchangeable terms for describing plants belonging to two very different plant families. Lovely photos, excellent information (for those who understand this), however, that's not me. Then I’ll come back the next day, if you aren’t sick or dead I might try it. What good information! Definitely poisonous. :). The gorgeous runner bean flowers don’t only add flair to the garden, they’re a nice garnish in salads. When cooking with daylily flowers, it is always advisable to factor in their delicate nature to avoid losing their nutritive value and flavor. Was looking for info as i had recently learned they were edible and i have a bunch growing so i tryed them and found them delicious! Jenny Yang on June 14, 2020: Chinese have been eaten daylily buds for thousands of years. wikiHow's. Do not try to eat a true lily. I think you can see how one person might say, “I had such a wonderful tiger lily hash for breakfast this morning,” while his friend might respond, “You’ll be dead by nightfall. Buds before opening up are collected & dried which are called "golden needles" sold as dried food in the same way as Oriental black dried mushrooms. Well-done! Back in the '60's when I was in my "back to Nature" phase, I read Euell Gibbon's books on foraging for wild food and decided to try fried tiger lily blossoms. Look up from an actually reputable source, don't take my word for it, or this page's Tiger lilies are not poisonous. Enormous amount of edible material - you better know what you are doing leave a few tubers to... They could be edible and thank you for sharing this great story is edible as well as tiger lilies never! 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