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• Taxonomy
• Physical Description
• Distribution
• Growth
• Similar Species
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Taxonomy

Physical Description

Family Liliaceae:

Herbs perennial, with a rhizome, bulb, or corm, rarely shrubby or treelike. Leaves basal and/or cauline, alternate, opposite, or whorled, parallel or rarely reticulate veined. Inflorescence a raceme, panicle, spike, umbel, reduced panicle, or other, or flowers solitary. Flowers bisexual, rarely unisexual, actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic; bracts present or absent; bracteoles present or absent. Perianth usually corollalike, 6-merous, rarely 4- or 8-merous, in 2 whorls; segments free (tepals) or united. Stamens 6, rarely 3, 4, or 8, inserted opposite perianth segments; filaments free or adnate to perianth, rarely connate into a corona; anthers usually 2-loculed, basifixed or dorsifixed and versatile, introrse, latrorse, or extrorse, dehiscing usually by vertical slits. Carpels usually connate for most or all of their length, rarely only at base; ovary superior, rarely semi-inferior, 3-loculed, rarely 2- or 4-loculed, with axile placentae, or rarely 1-loculed with a parietal placenta; ovules usually anatropous. Nectaries septal, perigonal, or absent. Fruit a capsule or berry. Seeds with abundant endosperm and small embryo.

About 250 genera and 3500 species: worldwide, especially in temperate and subtropical regions; 57 genera (three endemic, two introduced) and 726 species (379 endemic, 11 introduced) in China.^[1]

Genus Hemerocallis:

Herbs, perennial, scapose, clump-forming, rhizomatous, from fibrous or fleshy contractile roots often enlarged at ends; rhizomes spreading. Leaves many, basal, sessile, 2-ranked, bases sheathing; blade long-linear, keeled, apex acuminate. Inflorescences 2, in terminal helicoid cyme, or solitary. Flowers mostly diurnal and ephemeral, slightly irregular, showy; tepals 6, connate basally into short, funnelform to campanulate tube, distinct parts imbricate, spreading, inner broader than outer; stamens 6, adnate to throat of perianth tube; filaments curved upward, distinct, unequal; anthers dorsifixed, 2-locular, linear-oblong, dehiscence introrse; ovary superior, green, 3-locular, conic, septal nectaries present; style curved upwards; stigma indistinctly 3-lobed or capitate. Fruits capsular, leathery, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds rarely produced (sterile) or many. x = 11.

Species 15-30: introduced; temperate zones worldwide; temperate e Asia.

Hemerocallis is important economically as medicinal, poisonous, edible, and/or horticultural plants, which have been in Chinese culture for thousands of years (W. Erhardt 1992) . Hemerocallin, a root neurotoxin, can be both poisonous and useful medicinally as an analgesic, diuretic, arsenic-poisoning antidote, and treatment for schistosomiasis (J. A. Duke and E. S. Ayensu 1985; W. Erhardt 1992; Hu S. Y. 1968) . In Asia, flowers (buds and perianths), shoots, and tuberous roots (following suitable preparation) are important foods (G. Kunkel 1984) . Daylilies are among the most popular North American garden plants. Registered cultivars of Hemerocallis now exceed 38,000, including more than 13,000 named clones of H. fulva (G. Grosvenor 1999; R. M. Kitchingman 1985; R. W. Munson Jr. 1989; W. B. Zomlefer 1998) .

Hemerocallis has been included in a broadly circumscribed segregate family Hemerocallidaceae with 13-18 genera mainly from the Southern Hemisphere, especially Australia (W. B. Zomlefer 1998; H. T. Clifford et al. 1998), or placed alone in a monotypic Hemerocallidaceae (A. L. Takhtajan 1997) . The dwarf, yellow-flowered Hemerocallis minor P. Miller, grass-leaf daylily, has been reported as a local escape in Oregon.^[2]

Flowers: Bloom Period: early midseason (em) • Flower Color: red, red-purple

Distribution

Growth

Culture: Space 24-36" apart.

Soil: Minimum pH: 6.1 • Maximum pH: 7.8

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun.

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b. (map)

Similar Species

Members of the genus Hemerocallis:

There are approximately 32,855 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: H. exilis · H. hybrida · H. ochroleuca · H. stoutara · H. stoutiana · H. traubara · H. traubiana · H. yeldara · H. yeldiana · H. '120th Anniversary' (Daylily) · H. 'A Bauble For Bilbo' (Daylily) · H. 'A Beautiful Beginning' (Daylily) · H. 'A Bit of Spice' (Daylily) · H. 'A Bodacious Pattern' (Daylily) · H. 'A Face Of Catriona' (Daylily) · H. 'A Father's Love' (Daylily) · H. 'A Foggy Day' (Daylily) · H. 'A Go Go' (Daylily) · H. 'A Great Mystery' · H. 'A Guava Queen' (Daylily) · H. 'A Kiss For Kathy' (Daylily) · H. 'A la Mode' (A La Mode Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'A La Prochaine' (Daylily) · H. 'A Little Late Folks' (Daylily) · H. 'A Maidens Innocence' (Daylily) · H. 'A Moment In Time' (Daylily) · H. 'A Moose Fishing On A Pond On Monday' (Daylily) · H. 'A New View' (Daylily) · H. 'A Peddler's Dream' (Daylily) · H. 'A Place In The Circle' (Daylily) · H. 'A Promise Lives Within You Now' (Daylily) · H. 'A Servant's Hand' (Daylily) · H. 'A Special Lady' (Daylily) · H. 'A Spin On Barbara' (Daylily) · H. 'A Tick Kissing a Moose On a Wednesday' (Daylily) · H. 'A Touch of Pizzaz' (Daylily) · H. 'A Womans Worth' (Daylily) · H. 'A.E. Kunderd' (Daylily) · H. 'A.E. Radford' (Daylily) · H. 'A.M. Foote' (Daylily) · H. 'Aabaa' (Aabaa Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aabaca's Aba' (Aabacas Aba Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aabaca's Abacus' (Aabacas Abacus Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aabachee' (Aabachee Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aachen' (Daylily) · H. 'Aadell Curtis' (Daylily) · H. 'Aahme' (Daylily) · H. 'Aaron And Lisa' (Aaron and Lisa Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aaron Bolton' (Aaron Bolton Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aaron Boy' (Aaron Boy Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aaron Boylan' (Aaron Boylan Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aaron Leonard' (Aaron Leonard Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aaron's Beard' · H. 'Aaron's Dinner Plate' (Daylily) · H. 'Aaron's Little Whopper' (Daylily) · H. 'Aaron's Whopper' (Daylily) · H. 'Aarons Rod' (Daylily) · H. 'Abalone Angel' (Daylily) · H. 'Abalone Island' (Abalone Island Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abalone Pink' (Abalone Pink Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abalone' (Abalone Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abba' (Abba Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abbeville Sunset' (Abbeville Sunset Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abbey Choir' (Abbey Choir Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abbey Dore Court' (Abbey Dore Court Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abbey Gavin' (Daylily) · H. 'Abbey Lane' (Daylily) · H. 'Abbie Boy' (Abbie Boy Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abbie' (Daylily) · H. 'Abbirose' (Daylily) · H. 'Abbot's Magic' (Daylily) · H. 'Abbots Robes' (Abbots Robes Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abbott' (Daylily) · H. 'Abbott's Magic' (Daylily) · H. 'Abbreviation' (Daylily) · H. 'Abby Aldrich Rockefeller' (Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abby Russell' (Abby Russell Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abcada' (Daylily) · H. 'Abdullah' (Daylily) · H. 'Abednego' (Abednego Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abel' (Abel Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abendstern' (Daylily) · H. 'Abenstern' (Abenstern Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aberdeen Beauty' (Daylily) · H. 'Aberdeen Lea' (Daylily) · H. 'Aberdeen' (Aberdeen Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Aberration' · H. 'Abex' (Abex Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abide With Me' (Daylily) · H. 'Abiding Angel' (Daylily) · H. 'Abiding Goddess' (Abiding Goddess Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abiding Joy' (Daylily) · H. 'Abiding Love' · H. 'Abiding Strength' (Abiding Strength Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abigail Adams' (Abigail Adams Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abigale My Love' (Abigale My Love Daylily Hemerocallis) · H. 'Abigale' (Daylily) · H. 'Abilene Golden Boy' (Daylily) · H. 'Abilene Nan' (Daylily) · H. 'Abilene Pretty Lady' (Daylily)

Bibliography

• Erhardt, W. 1992. Hemerocallis: Daylilies. Portland.
• Hu S. Y. 1968. The species of Hemerocallis. Amer. Hort. Mag. 47: 86-111.
• Stout, A. B. 1934. Daylilies. New York. [Reprinted 1986, London.]
• Wang Fa-tsuan & Tang Tsin, eds. 1978; 1980. Liliaceae. Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 15: 1--280; 14: 1--308.

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Notes

Contributors:

• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2007. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed March 24, 2007.

Identifiers:

• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 930422

Footnotes:

1. Xinqi Chen, Prof. Song-Yun Liang, Jie-mei Xu, David E. Boufford, Michael G. Gilbert, Rudolf V. Kamelin, Shoichi Kawano, Tetsuo Koyama, Elena V. Mordak, Junko Noguchi, Victor G. Soukup, Hiroshi Takahashi, Kamilla G. Tamanian, Minoru N. Tamura & Nicholas J. Turland "Liliaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 24 Page 73. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
2. Gerald B. Straley & Frederick H. Utech "Hemerocallis". in Flora of North America Vol. 26 Page 51, 53, 57, 219. Oxford University Press. Online at EFloras.org.