Hi
@Bluespiral
Although it seems hard to believe, all the "ditch lilies" in the world are members of a single triploid clone which seems to be completely self-incompatible. The pioneering Daylily hybridizer Dr. Arlow B. Stout named it 'Europa'. Appropriate name for a plant that has traveled so far!
Because of its rhizomatous habit, it spreads into broad swaths. Pieces of rhizomes and crowns can get caught up in earthmoving and road maintenance activities, one reason for the random patches along roadsides.
The thickness of the rhizomes plus the fleshy tuberous roots and thickened perennial crown make it long-lived when dug and transported, even bareroot. It was dubbed "the homestead daylily" because it was one of the plants settlers would carry with them that survived long journeys.
Stout believed that this triploid form caught the attention of growers in its native Asia for its vigor and propagated it. The double flowered orange H. fulva fulva forms that have also been brought from Asia are also triploids.
Some growers have obtained seeds from 'Europa' by crossing it with tetraploids. One cross was X 'Midnight Magic' yielding 4 viable seeds. The progeny were all solid red like the pollen parent.
H. fulva in its wild habitats is diploid. It produces seeds freely and in fact certain "pink" forms of the diploids became the basis for much of Stout's work to produce a true pink daylily. He came very close. He also hybridized the first red daylilies and the first bicolor.
I guess that's more than enough to write on an Echinacea database! 😄
Pat
