Tiger Lily Confusion

Tiger lily (Lilium lancifolium)

Last spring we visited a small Old Order Mennonite shop in the next county where dry goods and delicious baked goods were sold. A few perennial plants were available and I selected a pot labeled "Tiger Lily". It did not bloom last year and the flowers finally opened this week. I was very confused as this is an Asiatic lily, not the common lily that grows in ditches in Ontario. I always thought that the widespread orange lily was a native plant called a Tiger Lily. 

Not so...

What did we do before information was instantly available on the internet, particularly on Wikipedia?!

The flower in my garden is a Tiger Lily and it is a non-native Asiatic plant. I knew Old Order Mennonites would not deceive me.

The roadside plants we saw in abundance on our trip to  Manitoulin Island are Orange Day Lilies (Hemerocallis fulva), called day lilies as the blooms only last one day. They are non-native plants, also originating in Asia, and are even not even true lilies. They have naturalized widely in North America and have many nicknames including ditch lily and tiger day lily.

Orange Day Lilies (Hemerocallis fulva)

Orange Day Lilies (Hemerocallis fulva)

All parts of the Day Lily are edible, and to quote Wikipedia, 

"The flowers, leaves, and tubers of the orange daylily are edible. Leaves and shoots can be eaten raw or cooked when very young (or they become too fibrous). The flowers and young tubers can also be eaten raw or cooked. The flowers can be dried and used as a thickener in soup. The cooked flower buds, served with butter, taste like green beans or wax beans.The tubers are a good potato substitute."

There is a native plant called the Canada Lily (Lilium canadense) but I do not recall finding one in the wild. I will have to look for it next year in June and July, but it is most commonly found on the east coast of North America and is threatened in some areas. 

The Tiger Lilies in my garden are lovely, even if they are not what I expected. Time will tell if they will thrive in our soil and if they will attract the dreaded Lily Leaf Beetles. Most of my lilies have succumbed to these imported pests in the past.