can you eat daylily flowers

Subkingdom: Tracheobionta (Vascular plants), Superdivision: Spermatophyta (Seed plants), Division: Magnoliophyta (Flowering plants). The fresh flowers can be  stuffed   with cream cheese and herbs to make a fancy appetizer. I'm delighted when I write something and readers tell me it's important and it shows them something new. I may never have to go to the supermarket again. There is a surprising number of species you can enjoy that are not just beautiful, but also totally edible. Daylily tubers should be harvested between late fall and early spring. Those must be the reasons I don't feel daring, brave or adventurous :). 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. Last Updated: March 29, 2019 by The Lily Pad October 29, 2018 It seems unlikely that such a beautiful plant would be used for any other purpose than to accent our gardens. 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 The gorgeous runner bean flowers don’t only add flair to the garden, they’re a nice garnish in salads. The differences in the term "Daylilies is Amazing...and I too, didn't know any of them could be Edible. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on June 28, 2012: LOL, trish1048, where's your sense of adventure? Kristen Howe from Northeast Ohio on April 03, 2015: Real interesting hub. It has even been considered that d aylilies are a staple food in different parts of the world, especially in Asia. They add beauty and a touch of delicacy mixed in among the greens. Why? I'm so glad you found this article interesting and enjoyed the photos. A friend of mine has planted them for erosion control...once these beauties establish themselves, it takes a tsunami to dislodge them. Tiger lily is toxic and not edible, however, daylily is edible. If their pretty I buy them and put them in the ground. However, this controversy over newer daylily hybrids is absolutely new to me. It is interesting that the only Hemerocallis that appears on the list is fulva, to your point about cross-bred flowers...fulva seems to be universally regarded as "safe" to eat, although the same is not said for hybrid cultivars. You did a very good job of how to distinguish one from the other and may have saved my life. The answer is yes you can eat daylilies they can be eaten and used to garnish with different kinds of dishes. 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. Nice hub! Daylily flowers only bloom for 1 day, so you will need to eat them shortly after picking them. Bill Holland from Olympia, WA on June 27, 2012: Oh, I know, they are all over around here...I just didn't know you could eat the damn things. So glad you found this interesting! Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. The differences are easy to see once you know them. Your anecdotal experience needs more attention. In 2009, under the APG III system, daylilies were removed from the Liliaceae family and assigned to the Xanthorrhoeaceae family, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae. Glad you found this interesting, and thank you for the votes. I grow both of them in my flowers garden in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Flowers will taste and look their best right after they have opened, rather than after they have been open for a few days. Not everyone wants to eat daylilies. Wait…it will get worse when we talk about purported daylily toxicity related to felines, bovines, and humans later on in this article. I've also had cats living in day-lilies. I'll tell you what, you bring the dandelion wine for cocktail hour and I'll make the daylily poppers for an appetizer. There are 15 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. “ With any daylily now, other than the original, that is what you have to do. One of my favourite wild edibles! If you’ve ever eaten daylily roots, you’ll know why. Roses and lotuses are not common foods here, and so you bring that good experience from your country to this discussion. Take the common term “tiger lily” for example. The first is generally agreed to be safe to eat, while the second is well-documented as being toxic to animal forms including human. Some of her hobbies include gardening and cooking. I’ll state the obvious with daylily flowers first. Edible daylilies, Hemerocallis fulva, grow wild in most of the US. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. It has a very short period which can be harvested or served in the menu of a famous restaurant. You can eat these raw or cooked. William E Krill Jr from Hollidaysburg, PA on June 19, 2012: Wow. 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. Voted up and interesting. Loveofnight Anderson from Baltimore, Maryland on November 11, 2013: wow.....thanks for all of the information, i found this article very interesting. Lily roots are, for the most part, bulbs consisting of oblong or arrowhead-shaped scales. What They Eat Voles prefer vegetation, including tubers, roots, your daylily bulbs and other favorites, grasses and herbaceous plants, including stems, foliage and flowers. An engaging hub with all the reasons of this pretty flower being a strong topic of debate! 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! You can store the buds in the refrigerator for later use. My Son's cat died recently, and it was believed it had gotten out of the house, and ate something from the garden. 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. 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. 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. 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. Fried daylilies can be served as a side dish. Add them to salads, use them as garnishes or simply snack on them in … Flowers are for picking and putting into vases, not for eating, which is how most of us grew up. You definitely did your research. Botanist Dr. Peter A. Gail, an expert in daylily and other edible foraged foods, advises that humans approach the consumption of daylilies with caution. :). They are at their best in late fall or winter after they have stored nutrients from summer growth. You can use those to propagate the lily or the tubers. The two have structural differences in foliage, flower orientation, and root systems. 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. People living in Asian cultures have incorporated daylilies into their cuisine; however, it has not become common in mainstream North American cuisine. take care pam. Eat the flowers raw. I too have some Large Potted Daylilies...which are Beautiful, but I can't picture myself eating any. I'm sure the instructor knew the difference between the true lily and the daylily, but this is a great example of how the term "tiger lily" perpetuates confusion. You can add raw daylily flowers to your favourite salad recipe to add some colour and summer freshness. I ate a bunch of them about 35 years ago..Sauteed them in a little butter and they were fabulous. 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. 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. Cutting back daylily shoots will not prevent the plant from growing. The daylily from the family Hemerocallidoideae commonly called "Tiger Lily" and valued as a food source for centuries. For more information on identifying daylilies, take a look at this excellent photo guide on how to identify daylilies. I'd love to know what you think. Sherri has expertise in landscape design. They have a light taste or no taste. Cool Hub! Lovely sauteed briefly with some garlic scapes and butter, or added to a vegetable stir-fry. I just pinch the blooms and enjoy the light texture and crunch. But never use them fresh. Stella de Oro daylilies at the peak of their spring bloom. I love & enjoy this real interesting hub, which provides important information how to identify edible daylily and other non edible lilies plants. fulva! This article seeks only to inform about the daylily, its reported culinary uses, and its suspected ill-effects on cats, bovines, and possibly, humans. Peggy Woods from Houston, Texas on July 18, 2012: Interesting hub for sure! "Boo" was a house cat. Three years ago, I visited my hometown in Taipei, Taiwan. Great source of food in the woods and tasty. I love to learn stuff like this! Prior to 2009, the scientific classification of daylilies put them into the family Liliaceae. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on June 21, 2012: drbj and robie2, I love that both of you would prefer to devour daylilies with your eyes rather than with your mouths! Ok, so now wasn't a good time to read this. Please consider making a contribution to wikiHow today. As with all new and exciting adventures you approach, begin with moderation. At the same time, they produce an enormous amount of edible material. I do not advise you to eat daylilies or to expose your animals to them without your doing the work of assessing your own risk. If you are eating them raw then simply added to salads is a great use. That's a sad testament to his life. They've lived longer than I - in cat years. The seeds make a spicy condiment or flavoring when finely I've eaten many day-lilies and will continue. 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. I believe that i am now going to be on the look-out for them. Spiderwort which looks a lot like an Asian lily is another edible flower that tastes similar. They are the best-tasting part of the plant. Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) – Many people enjoy sunflower seeds but are unaware that they can actually eat the entire plant.These happy yellow flowers are a great addition to any meal. When you pick a daylily flower, make sure to include the bulb near the base of the flower. Picked them toward evening when the flowers were closed up. I have grown both daylilies as well as tiger lilies in the past. 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. Eat flowers you have grown yourself, or know to be safe for consumption. You may want to check out this list and its accompanying text from the Colorado State Extension Service. Always be make sure you are 100% sure you have correctly identified a plant species before eating it. This is a great hub with lots of information. About Euell Gibbons, there was a rumor, I don't know if it was ever confirmed, that he died eating foraged foods. However, by bulbil it takes three years for them to mature. Bottom line, the daylilies didn't kill you after all. By using our site, you agree to our. Sample a small amount to see how your body reacts before indulging in a large portion. I'm calling 911!”. The first two paragraphs made my head swim. As of now, too much controversy exists about the daylily being a safe food. (Photo: Signe Langford) Freshly opened, the flowers are comparable in taste to sweet iceberg lettuce. What good information! As for making dinner of the daylilies growing in your flower garden, well, how about a tiny appetizer? When cooking with daylily flowers, it is always advisable to factor in their delicate nature to avoid losing their nutritive value and flavor. :) Thank you, my friend, for reading and commenting. 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. Unfortunately, many sources on the web and elsewhere have not taken this change of scientific classification into account. Voted up. Let me define the reasons for controversy in order to help you sort out your own thinking about whether you should eat this flower. My family had reunion dinner in a Taipei famous restaurant that serve this green daylily buds dish deliciously. 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. Thanks for an interesting article! Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on July 18, 2012: Micky Dee, this is the kind of testimonial I want to see. Look up from an actually reputable source, don't take my word for it, or this page's Tiger lilies are not poisonous. Instead, they publish a series of questions on the topic and present the answers they solicited from plant and veterinary experts. Ishwaryaa Dhandapani from Chennai, India on August 21, 2012: An informative hub! Thank you for sharing your experiences and for the vote and share. Just a small section of the main border – daylilies are crowding out everything else. Eat flowers you know to be consumable — if you are uncertain, consult a reference book on edible flowers and plants. Well-done! Dahlia – Most people don’t realize that dahlias are closely related sunflowers and Jerusalem artichokes, or that you also can eat dahlia bulbs (corms). A post on The House on Red Hill blog brings this issue into focus from the point of view of a cat owner and long-time daylily gardener who learns for the first time, from a poster in the vet’s office, that daylilies are lethal to cats. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on August 21, 2012: Thank you, ishwaryaa22, for your comment. Let’s take a closer Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on June 22, 2012: Stephanie Henkel, thanks for sharing this great story. The daylily foliage looks like a fan of long and strappy grass-like leaves emanating from the base of the plant. This article has been viewed 9,942 times. Daylilies are a popular staple in Asian cuisine and they are used both fresh and dried. I think it's hard to learn to eat things outside our early experiences. This will help remove any insects that may be inside the leaves or petals. You can eat the beans of these trailing plants and the flowers, too. In my country, they used roses and lotuses in some of their dishes. Thanks for sharing this important Hub. The American Hemerocallis Society takes no stand on whether daylilies are toxic to cats and cows. The blog post is short. That leaves a gardener with a choice. The lily from the family Liliaceae, commonly called "Tiger Lily". Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on September 01, 2012: Daylilies aren't for everyone, that's for sure! Think I'll continue to just admire rather than ingest them. http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07237.htm... Table 2 lists edible flowers by their Latin names, although it offers no pictures. You can add raw daylily flowers to your favourite I love tiger lilies and day lilies and never thought they could be edible. To enjoy their full goodness, you should eat the flowers the same day they are picked. 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. Use caution when eating daylilies Make sure it is a daylily (Hemerocallis) and not a poisonous Asiatic lily or something else. These can be replanted and will continue to grow. Edible Lily Bulbs: Which ones can you eat and how? We know ads can be annoying, but they’re what allow us to make all of wikiHow available for free. The whole thing reminds me of people who gather wild mushrooms - you better know what you are doing! 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--. 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 will continue to bloom all season long. :). But never use them fresh. Just the leaves. You can also boil, stir-fry or cream them, serving them as a side dish in place of potatoes. 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). If you really can’t stand to see another ad again, then please consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow. I found this very informative and interesting. 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. Flavor: Scarlet runner bean flowers have a dainty bean flavor. :). This “Q & A” page is a revealing look into the two opposing camps regarding daylily toxicity. 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. Confused yet? My yard is full of both daylilys and tigar lilies. You could also try adding a protein source, such as chicken, beef, or shrimp. Here's the DAYLILY, Hemerocallis fulva var. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 9,942 times. There's so much trouble for a house cat to get into when it escapes. I still have a couple of scapes that will have a blossom or two soon. Thank you for sharing. Voted Up... Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on July 16, 2012: Interesting, Deb...the cooking class called them tiger lilies? Thanks for reading and commenting... daylilies grow in your climate, you know. I'll bet you could add to that body of knowledge. wikiHow's. 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. 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.) This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. Very informative! I now have several kinds of daylilies growing in my flower garden...hmmm...dinner? I'm still training myself to eat nasturtiums. Now I learnt the difference between daylilies and lilies thanks to you. Daylily tubers are also edible, and can be used like fingerling potatoes. 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 … But then, I'd always known the difference between a lily and a daylily and knew better not to eat the former. :). You can buy them in Chinatown, sometimes labeled helpfully as “dried lily buds.” And while I have nothing against the flavor of fancy Hemerocallis hybrids, these are usually planted by parks employees or homeowners, so I steer clear. Love the pics and amazing info. I'm sure they're better for us than iceberg lettuce. 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. Actually, one of the great things about daylily tubers is that you can eat them anytime you can dig them (so, not during the January freeze, say). Experts say the safest way to eat edible flowers is to grow them yourself. Once you have finished cooking them, toss the tubers with butter and add salt and pepper to taste. The buds do have medicinal properties, but be careful. @Pamela-anne, I know what you mean about enjoying them in the garden but not necessarily in the garden salad. Sherri (author) from Southeastern Pennsylvania on July 17, 2012: moonlake, you are not alone! Let me watch you eat the plant. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. 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. Should we be eating them? Daylilies are actually edible and they have a unique taste that most people definitely enjoy. Most of the problem is making sure the right plant is identified. I do not think I would ever eat day lilies, but your hub and the images, the info you gathered, is work well done. I have many in my garden where they look absolutely awesome. :). % of people told us that this article helped them. But there's a world of food goodness in flowers. Daylily flowers have a sweet flavour and can actually be enjoyed raw. Will err on the side of safety for now. Useful & Interesting. Apparently, from the literature, not all can tolerate them, like some can't tolerate lactose. They can eat the whole top off of a lily in very short order. Fascinating research, m'dear. 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. Voting up and clicking the facebook like button. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/5\/5a\/Eat-Daylilies-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Eat-Daylilies-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/5\/5a\/Eat-Daylilies-Step-1-Version-2.jpg\/aid8858595-v4-728px-Eat-Daylilies-Step-1-Version-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":"728","bigHeight":"546","licensing":"