Daylily: From Garden to Delectable Treat

The Daylily is quite a unique plant.  This one if I am not mistaken is the Tawny (Tiger) Daylily.  This plant is a common garden ornamental.  You can find these plants especially planted in local garden communities and in parks.  Some daylilles are actually used in Chinese dishes such as hot and sour soup and  mooshu pork.  You can find them (yellow ones) sold dried in Asian markets.  Daylilies are renowned for blooming only one day in a year before dying off hint the name “Daylily.”  You can also eat the rhizomes, tubers, and leaves of some Daylilies.  The tubers have a flavor of turnip with a little hint of nutty crunching.  The leaves and rhizomes have a mild onion/ string bean kind of flavor.  Be careful not to eat too much of the plant if this is your first time, as 1/50 people will have an upset stomach and vomiting eating the plant, according to forage expert “Wildman” Steve Brill.   Take anywhere from a couple to a few bites to see if anything happens.  Some people have reported suffering an irritated throat from eating Daylilies.  Slowly increase your eating portion of this plant if no bad health effects appears. You can use Daylilies in sandwiches, stews, or soups with more spicy onion vegetables such as Filed Garlic and Garlic Mustard.   Do not confuse Daylilies with Daffodils and Iris as they not only lack in onion odor, they lack in plant structure of Daylilies.  For instance, the plant base of Iris is green and not white like Daylily or Cattail ( another wild plant that I never had.)  It is also advised that you keep your cat away from consuming Daylily since your pet cat can get sick and die from it, unless getting medical attention immediately.   As always, please make sure that you consult a forager and do some deep research before eating a wild plant.  It can be extremely dangerous unless you know exactly what you are doing.  These photos are available on my site at https://stevenanthony123456.smugmug.com/  Look for them in the flower and plant section!  Do not forget to purchase them!