ORANGE DAY-LILY

TIGER DAY-LILY, TAWNY DAY-LILY

Hemerocallis fulva

Asphodel Family [Xanthorrhoeaceae]

month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug

status
statusZneophyte
 
flower
flower8bicolour
 
flower
flower8orange flower8red
 
inner
inner8yellow
 
morph
morph8actino
 
morph
morph8hemizygo
(stamens)
petals
petalsZ6
 (3+3)
stem
stem8round
 
toxicity
toxicityZhigh
 
sex
sexZsterile
(cultivated)

5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
Grows up to 80 cm with flowers up to 90mm across. It is very much like it's brighter but slightly smaller-flowered cousin Yellow Day-lily, which does not occur as often in the wild in the UK. Petals are dull-orange in colour with a central lighter stripe.


5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
The trumpet has a fairly wide-angled flare, but starts from a long parallel-sided tubular section that is green. Several flowers have already flowered and dropped off beneath it. This looks like this stalks last stand, with no flower bud ready to take over tomorrow. But the stalk on the right has a flower ready to open, and another for waiting in the wings to take over.


5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
Flowers are trumpet-shaped and flared at the end. The central area of the funnel is also lighter in colour (usually yellow). Unopened flower bud at bottom. Only one flower per stem is usually in flower at any one time, and it flowers for but a day, hence the name 'Day-lily'. Another flower will take its place, and by this means, the plants as a whole may flower for up to 3 weeks.


5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
It has six stamens and one slightly longer style, all curved preferentially one way, making it slightly homozygomorphic, although the petals themselves seem actinomorphic with radial symmetry. The frilliness of the edges of the petals is in-bred in this cultivated hybrid.


5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
It looks like there are six petals, but in actual fact the three outer ones are sepals that once formed the outer enclosure of the flower bud, containing the 3 petals within. Collectively these two sets of three 'petals' are called tepals.


5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
The six stamens break radial symmetry by preferentially curving over to one side, the flower is thus hemi-zygomorphic. Style straigher and white-tipped.


5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
Has six yellow stamens with long, brown longitudinal anthers and a longer yellow style tipped by a white fuzzy termination.


5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
This plant has yellow pollen - but is it viable or sterile?


5th July 2014, Rimrose Valley Country Park, Sefton. Photo: © RWD
A flower ready to open, and one remaining flower bud waiting in the wings to take over.


13th July 2011, a garden, Old Clough Lane, Walkden. Photo: © RWD
The leaves are grass-like, V-shaped for stiffness, very long and narrow and taper to a point.


A CULTIVATED VARIETY

Possibly Hemerocallis 'Stafford', H. 'Mrs Hugh Johnson' or H. 'Autumn Red'
but there are over 1000 cultivars
13th July 2011, a garden, Old Clough Lane, Walkden. Photo: © RWD
A more vivid orange-red of a cultivated variety of Day-Lily.


13th July 2011, a garden, Old Clough Lane, Walkden. Photo: © RWD
Pollen covers the brown anthers on just one side.


Not to be semantically confused with : Lily [a similar-looking flower with similar name but which belongs in a differing family]

Resembles : Yellow Day-lily (Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus) to which it is directly related and which has slightly smaller flowers at 70-80m which are yellow (not dull-orange) and possess a fragrance of which Orange Day-lily is devoid.

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature :

The fruit is a three-valved capsule about an inch long and half an inch across which slits assunder when ripe to release its seeds. It can also reproduce vegetatively by stolons. Most cultivated varieties are sterile which only propagate vegetatively. It is not native to the UK, but instead to Asia in a region stretching from the Caucases through the Himalayas, China Japan and Korea. It is a perennial and will persist where planted. It spreads rapidly whenever thrown out, by ditches, roadsides, into fields and woods. It forms dense clumps which out-compete and exclude other plants and in some places is so common it is mistaken for a native. However, that doesn't seem to occur anywhere near where your Author lives.

It is called a Day-lily because each flower lasts for but one sunny day, but there is usually another flower bud ready to open the next day, and the day after, for up to a week, or sometimes up to three weeks.

Like Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) it has a relatively short genome, that and its self-fertilising and in-breeding abilities make it of merit for experimental genomic research likehas Thale Cress.

The taxonomy of the Hemerocallis genus is confused. It was recently moved out of the Hemerocallidaceae family (which was made defunct with no members) family and in 2009 placed amidst the Xanthoriaceae Family (which ultimately derives from the Grass Family tree) but more recent molecular studies have tended to resurrect the Hemerocallidaceae Family and place it back in there. However, the picture is still confused.

Because the flower is extant but one day, several studies have focussed their attention on just how this programmed cell death occurs. Because the turnaround in Day-lily is quick, progress is hastened.

NAPHTHALENE DERIVATIVES


Some references say that the plant is poisonous whereas others treat this suggestion with contempt and readily eat the petals. However, it may not be the petals which are poisonous, and it may not be humanoids to which it is most toxic; other animals may be more susceptible. Certainly it is reported that Hemerocallis genera are neurotoxic and the cause of a unique disease in Australia with symptoms such as brain oedema, Wallerian atrophy of the optic nerve, and de-myelination of central myelin sheaths around the nerves. This results in severe pelvic pain and can also result in permanent blindness in severe cases (usually in cattle). Although, in defence, Hemerocallis species are being cultivated for food. As they say, it is the dose which maketh the poison (even water is poisonous in excess). It seems that most of the Hemerocallin toxin is located in the root and rhizomes, and that aerial parts are relatively free of the substance. Thus it may be alright to eat the flower-heads (in moderation), but beware anything else!

Hemerocallin (a dimer of a naphthalene derivative) is the toxic principle along with other substances. Hemerocallin is a neurotoxic bi-napthalene tetrol and is identical to the substance Stypandrol which is found in Stypandra imbricata, a lily native to Australia.

Day-lilies also contain a novel naphthalene glycoside, Stelladerol, which has potent anti-oxidant properties. The two glycosidic units are shown in red. It will be seen that the Naphthalene derivative (shown in black) is not quite the same as that in Hemerocallin (note the extra -OH descending from the naphthalene group). Other similar glycosides have been isolated in Day-lilies.

Other substances have been isolated from Orange Day-lily including Guanosine, Adenosine, eight flavones including Kaempferol and three polyphenols based upon CaffeoylQuinic Acid aka Chlorogenic Acid. It is reported that methods of reducing the amounts of the very poisonoius alkaloid Colchicine, which is present in Day-lilies (at least in the cultivar 'Panlonghua'), is on-going.

The poisonous spiro-stanol steroidal saponins Hemeroside A and Hemeroside B are both found in the aerial parts of the plant, Hemeroside A containing three glycosides, Hemeroside B containing four.

Hemeroside A (aka Hemerocallis A) is 24S-hydroxy-neotokorogenin 1-O-α-L-arabinopyranosyl 24-O-β-D-glucopyranoside
and
Hemeroside B (aka Hemerocallis B) is isorhodeasapogenin 3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl- (1-->3)-[β-D-xylopyranosyl- (1-->2)]-β-D-glucopyranosyl- (1-->4)-β-D-galactopyranoside


  Hemerocallis fulva  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Xanthorrhoeaceae  

Distribution
 family8Asphodel family8Xanthorrhoeaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Hemerocallis
Hemerocallis
(Day-Lilies)

ORANGE DAY-LILY

TIGER DAY-LILY, TAWNY DAY-LILY

Hemerocallis fulva

Asphodel Family [Xanthorrhoeaceae]