drdawg said: I don't quite understand why someone patents a plant and why it would be a clone,
Patented so that neither YOU nor any one else can reproduce and sell it, legally. Cloned cause: it is easy to do these days and gives an exact duplicate and you can fairly easily make gazillions of them. Flasking.
I hope that your plant in fact goes way back.
A new friend (82 YO) gave me a Daylily division which she got ~ 20 years ago from a friend who was a generation older than my new friend. The friend had gotten it from her grandmother who purchased it in the 1930s or so..
After a ton of research, it looks like I may have a very rare antique Daylily first Registered in 1924. Sorry this is so off topic.