From “The Botanical Characteristics of Daylilies” in Daylilies: The Wild Species and Garden Clones, Both Old and New, of the Genus Hemerocallis by Arlow B. Stout:
“In appearance, habits of growth, and botanical characteristics, the daylilies form a rather sharply defined group of plants known as the genus Hemerocallis….
“The daylilies are all herbaceous perennials. The parts which appear above ground and are conspicuous as the plants grow in gardens are the leaves, the flower stalks or scapes, and the flowers.
“The stems are in the soil or extending slightly above its surface. In temperate regions the foliage of most daylilies dies to the ground in autumn or is killed during early winter and the plant is dormant until spring arrives. In the tropics many daylilies are evergreen.
“The leaves of daylilies are linear, strongly ribbed, and arranged in two ranks that are closely compacted and equitant at the base and that spread gracefully above to form a symmetrical ‘fan.’ In the disposition, height, and color of the leaves there is considerable diversity among species and garden clones.
“The flower stalks or scapes arise directly from the crown in the midst of a cluster of leaves. They are naked except for leaf-like bracts at the few nodes and subtending the branches and the flowers. The scapes are slender, erect or ascending, and branched or unbranched at the top according to the character of the species.
“The flowers of daylilies are large and colorful. In the general appearance of the perianth, six stamens, and single pistil they resemble the flowers of the genus Lilium; but they are shorter lived, in some types lasting for one day only, and the six segments of the showy perianth are united at the base to form a well-defined tube. The flower colors for the different species range from pale yellow through shades of yellow and orange to combinations with fulvous red. In the newer hybrids the colors have been extended especially into rosy pink, red, and purplish shades.”
From “The Flower” in The Illustrated Guide to Daylilies by Oliver Billingslea:
“Sculpted daylilies are… defined by several forms. Relief sculpting is characterized by vertically raised ridges that extend from the throat and project from the petal surface. The ridges may grow parallel to the veins, or they may radiate outwards from each side of the midrib. Pleated sculpting occurs when petals have a deep longitudinal crease on each side of the midrib. These creases cause folding of the petal upon itself creating a raised platform extending from the top of the perianth and ending between the throat and the petal tip. Cristate defines a form of sculpting that refers to appendages of extra petal tissue growing from the midrib or elsewhere on the surface of the petals. When the extra tissue grows from the midrib, the form is called midrib cristate.
“Edges, or the outer periphery of the petals and sepals of daylilies, can possess structural distinction as well, such as knobs, braids, tentacles, fringe, and teeth. Some structural edges reach out onto the surface of the flower giving a sculpted three-dimensional effect.”
Hello!
This is the second of three posts with photos of some red and yellow daylilies that I took during two June trips to Oakland Cemetery. The first post is Red and Yellow Daylilies (1 of 3).
In the previous post, I included this photograph showing where these daylilies hang out and mentioned that I took this photo on my first visit, when only one of the flowers was in bloom. I’ve also included it in this post, so we can speculate on how this arrangement of plants affects both our visual perception of their forms and colors, as well as the growth patterns of the plants and their individual blossoms.
We tend to experience scenes like this holistically, as a single small garden constrained by stone and concrete boundaries. But even this limited space contains a large number of environmental variables, all of which have an impact on the growth and blooming patterns of its plants. If we think of this scene as a micro-environment or micro-climate instead, we can then imagine that factors like water absorption and retention, protection from adverse weather conditions, or sun exposure might vary significantly for some plants over others. We can see, for example, that the plants in the lower left corner receive the most sunlight throughout the day, exposing those plants to the sun for the longest continuous periods. The plants at the right and toward the back left get more shade as the sun passes behind the trees and shrubs surrounding the monument. The back-left plants get very little sun much of the day; and, unsurprisingly, have far fewer blooms than the rest of the plants.
Here are three representative photos from the galleries below.
I took the first two at the sunny left corner, the first one when the sun was out and the second one when it slipped behind clouds for a few minutes. This diminished sunlight shifts several colors from warmer (with more yellow light) to cooler, where yellow light is filtered out by the clouds and blue light wavelengths become more prominent. This is why we see the second photo’s yellow as more like orange, and its red/magenta as more like purple or burgundy — an effect not unlike taking cans of paint with those colors and mixing in a bit of blue. Even the bricks in the background of that second photo take on a cooler, more blue appearance, and some of that blue is reflected back into the camera, contributing to the shift from warm to cool colors. And — as I mentioned several times in my iris project posts — shaded or filtered sunlight lets us crank up color saturation in photos taken in those conditions without distorting their appearance or relationships, so we can reveal an intensity and variability in the flower colors that isn’t as apparent among those taken in the sun.
In terms of flower forms, the first two are more alike than they might initially appear, simply because they’re at different stages in their lifecycle, with the first flower in an earlier stage than the second. A day or two after I took these photos, the two would have looked more alike, with their petals dropping into a similar horizontal position. The flower in the third photo, however, looks quite a bit different, almost as if it was a different variety with a more downward, convex form — one that’s similar to a recurved daylily where the flowers present as more circular and its petals bend downward toward the flower’s base.
While it’s not impossible that these daylilies have propagated their own variants — the number of plants has, after all, expanded over the years I’ve photographed them — it’s more likely that we’re seeing an environmental effect. The flower in the third photo receives far less sunlight than those in the first two photos, leading it to adapt to those conditions by producing downward-facing petals that can capture light coming from different directions. It’s not simply forming an alternate flower shape for observers to wonder about; it’s responding to its environment by creating a form that will optimize its ability to take advantage of its less optimal position in the garden.
It also demonstrates variations in the shapes of knobs, braids, or fringes along the edges of the petals that are different from the first two sun-bathed photos. The production of that fringing requires a significant amount of plant energy, so those that capture less light are consequently less capable of producing petals that incorporate extensive corkscrew-like shapes along the flower’s edges. While the fringing does exist, it’s less pronounced and less likely to appear along all the petal edges, but more likely to occur only where individual petals get the most light.
With this information in mind, you could now examine the photos and make educated guesses about which ones receive full sunlight, which ones receive sunlight filtered by nearby trees, and which ones live mostly in the shade — regardless of whether I photographed them when the sun was out or was behind the clouds.
Thanks for reading and taking a look!
