Blooming Blurbs: Silly Lilies

Blooming Blurbs: Silly Lilies
By Finn Beckman

If I ask you to think of a lily, what do you think of? Maybe daylilies and their short-lived but vibrant flowers, or maybe your mind wanders into the water to think of water lilies and frogs hopping from pad to pad. There are many plants that use the name lily but taxonomically speaking, the lily family is smaller than you might assume. In fact, it doesn't even include the two plants mentioned above. But do not fret! In this week’s blooming blurb, we are going to take a trip around The Gardens to clarify what is and what isn’t truly a lily. 

Our first stop is the Daylily Garden, located on the west side of the visitor center building on our grounds.  Hemerocallis cvs., or daylilies, are native to China and Japan. Growing up to 2.5' tall and across, most prefer full sun to part shade. Although they may resemble true lilies, Hemerocallis have several differences that set them in the Asphodelaceae (asphodel) family. These include tuberous roots instead of bulbs and leaves that are long, flat, and grow from the base of the plant instead of growing directly from a main stem. While true lilies have 6 “petals” (technically called tepals in this group) that are connected at their base into one structure, daylilies do not have fused tepals—they only touch one another.

Daylily blooms can start in early summer, lasting almost into the start of fall and come in a cascade of different colors, shapes and forms. There are thousands of cultivars of Hemerocallis registered with the American Daylily Society. The local chapter of the Society generously helps to care for and curate the collection at The Gardens. The bed features 120+ unique cultivars with blooms that range from pinks, yellows, oranges, reds, and whites. These showy blooms are why daylilies are so sought after and also highlight where they get their name, as each bloom typically lasts around 24 hours. Some varieties are bred to have more stalks, others for more blooms per stalk. As a result, the bed will cycle through many different blooms over the span of just a couple weeks. 

Our next stop is in the southwest side of the Undaunted Garden to take a look at our torch lilies, or red-hot pokers. Kniphofia sp. are plants native to South Africa that have been introduced into horticulture around in the world.  These plants can grow up to 6’ tall and about 30” around the base with long and slender leaves emerging from the crown of the plant. In our region, they are typically 4’ or shorter.  Unlike true lilies, Kniphofia flowers arise on a leafless flower stem and bear their ovaries deep inside the flower as opposed to having them above the stamen. These blooms are clustered onto a large inflorescence, resembling a torch, and coming in red, orange, yellow, and sometimes even white or green, that appear in the early-to-mid summer. Kniphofia blooms are also unique in that they’ve evolved to attract and support native pollinating sunbirds in South Africa. These birds pollinate the flowers by landing on the sturdy stems beneath the flowers, which face downward. The sunbirds then face upward, feeding on nectar deep in the tubular flowers. Here in the U.S., we do not have true sunbirds that would pollinate the same way, but these plants still act as hosts for hovering hummingbirds. In the garden, Kniphofia prefer evenly moist, but well-draining soil and enjoy full sun. Key to success with this group is finding a location that keeps the plants dry as they are prone to winter rot.

For our last lily lookalike, we will need to dip into our Children’s Garden pond to take a look at our Nymphaea sp., or water lilies. Whereas both “lilies” mentioned previously are terrestrial and share many traits with true lilies, the Nymphaea family is an aquatic plant that resembles lilies in name only. These plants do not have bulbous roots, alternating leaves, or similar flower structure. Instead, they have evolved to anchor themselves into the sediment and rock in water sources and float both leaves and flowers to the surface of the water. Due to the pads being either completely or only partially submerged, the stomata (pores on the leaf surface for gas exchange) are unusually located on the tops of the pads to allow for more efficient air exchange.

Water lilies are described as having a “cosmopolitan distribution,” meaning they are located almost everywhere on earth, except for the Artic and Antarctic regions. Horticulturally, water lilies can be put into 2 groups: hardy or tropical. While hardy lilies are typically day-flowering, tropical lilies usually have flowers that will either bloom during the day or the night, and some are even able to extend their flower above the water surface for better pollinator access. Tropical lilies can bloom and grow year-round and are built to handle the extended sunlight of the tropics or treated as an annual if grown elsewhere. Conversely, lilies native to the U.S. and other temperate regions, are considered to be in the “hardy” group and survive chilly winters like ours by growing below the freeze line, which is the deepest point at which solid ice forms in a body of water. Most flowers on water lilies are white, yellow, or violet and typically only bloom during the day.

Finally, we have arrived at a true lily in the Liliaceae family. Stepping over to the Color Walk we can see several different varieties of Asiatic and Oriental lilies, Lilium x. These summer bloomers are native to China and Japan and prefer the full sun, but can tolerate part shade, and prefer moist, but well-draining soil. Taking a look at the form of the plant, these monsters can grow up to 4’ tall and can have some proportionality large blooms that can come in a small variety of colors like oranges, pinks and violets usually repping some variegations or markings on the flowers.

After discussing the differences between so called “lilies” and true lilies we now have a small checklist to start identifying the Liliaceae family: 

• There are a set of 3 petals and 3 sepals that are fused at the base, becoming almost indistinguishable from each other. 

• The flowers are all growing off the same stem, with leaves alternating up the whole way. In contrast would be Kniphofia and Hemerocallis with their long, grassy leaves and sturdy stems arising independently from their bases.

• We can unearth the root system to identify what lies beneath: while true lilies form scaly bulbs, a bit like garlic, other plants mentioned in this piece form tuberous roots or rooting stems called rhizomes.

Though many of our garden plants may superficially resemble lilies, and many of them use lily in their common names, it is clear that scientifically the Liliaceae is an exclusive club. I hope the next time you look at a “lily"—you might be able to spot the key traits that reveal whether it’s a true member of the lily family or just borrowing the name. Regardless, all of these plants are wonderful additions o your garden; they provide an amazing amount of color and visual interest!