Re: purple hems

  Kitty, I'm not a hemerocallis person, though I wish I could be.  I can't 
grow them any
more because of the deer - used to have a pretty good collection years ago 
before the
deer became so numerous.  I did try to do a little research on the question, 
and 
discovered a few interesting facts.  First of all, Hemerocallis are not 
listed as wildflowers
in any of the standard references, including the encyclopedic Wildflowers of 
the World
even though they grow wild along roadsides in this area - or did before the 
deer
population explosion.                                                    
  In  100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names, by Diana Wells, I found this 
info:
"They were named by Linnaeus, and the names "fulva" for the tawny lily and 
"flava"
for the lemon lily are rare instances where he named specific plants by the 
color of 
their flowers."  I would conclude from this that the common "roadside" 
daylily is
the H. fulva, and the 'Europa' is a cultivar.  I'd probably go with Jim and 
call them all
H. fulva cultivars.
  Wells says that the large tetraploid dayliles are created with the help of 
colchicine,
an extract of the autumn crocus or Colchicum.
  She also reports that the young leaves, when eaten, are said to be slightly 
intoxicating, and that the Chinese (the plant originally came from China) 
called it "the plant of forgetfulness" as it was supposed to help ally sorrow by 
causing forgetfulness.  Perhaps your friend who is confused about the species 
and cultivars has been sampling the young leaves too freely.
Auralie

In a message dated 08/22/2004 3:12:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
kmrsy@comcast.net writes:
I'm hoping Chris and Auralie and other hem people will put in their 2 cents.

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