I often hear people speak of daylily stems and stalks and I have always assumed they were referring to the scape. But, I just read that the crown of the daylily is the stem. I never thought much about it, but how many people ever use the term stem when talking about daylilies and are actually referring to the crown? Maybe a scientific definition of stem and crown?

Not me & I don't use "stalk" either

@Seedfork You can find an original version of the Daylily Handbook at
https://ahsgardening.org/wp-co...

Below are three excerpts from chapter 3 "The Developmental Anatomy and Physiology of Daylily written by Paul D. Voth, Robert A. Griesbach and John R. Yeager which starts on page 121. There are figures in the chapter that help explain the text descriptions.

"In garden parlance, each fan or ramet
consists of a crown which produces
leaves above and roots below. The
crown, as gardeners call it, is an underground
stem which is being slowly
pulled into the ground by contractile
roots. Other names for this stem are
vegetative stem, rootstock, and pseudobulb." pg 121

From the legend for Fig 1
"Diagrammatic and simplified
longitudinal section of the base of a
daylily ramet in the summer of its second
season. The junction of leaf bases
and rootstock (stem) constitutes the
crown. Origin and development of stem
and roots and their internal organization
is shown."

"The long leafless scape, part of which
in Figure II is hidden in the crown, may
reach a height of more than three feet to
L1• The scape contrasts sharply with
the underground stem, in which successive
leaves rest on each other (Fig. I) .
The ratio of distance between these corresponding
stem portions may be 1000: I
or even greater." pg 132

Yes, the "crown" is a very compressed stem.
The Daylily Dictionary definition of crown:
"The small white core located between leaves and roots, that is the modified stem of the daylily plant. Some crown tissue must be present for any daylily division to be viable."

Thanks, something to read on the porch this afternoon.

I just looked at a few anatomy pictures.
One had a flower "stem" as a sidebranch from the scape leading to a flower. Makes sense. Flower bud links to flower stem that connects to another sidebranch, or the scape.
https://thegardeningcook.com/t...
None of the other anatomy pictures mentioned a stem.

Edited to add: Just read the post of Maurice, after I posted, which is pretty informative.

A single fan crown with a scape. The crown is normal and compressed.

This shows an original fan with a scape with a single replacement fan with its own scape in its typical location. The crown of the original fan has been uncompressed to compare the growth form of daylilies with that of other more typical plants whose stems are not compressed.

I remember seeing diagrams showing the part from the scape connecting to the bloom referred to as the stem also. I suppose that could be true, just different types of stems? A flower stem.
https://images.saymedia-conten...

@Seedfork. Yes, daylilies have flower stems formally called pedicels -
"A pedicel is a stem that attaches a single flower to the inflorescence. Such inflorescences are described as pedicellate"
The scape is an inflorescence. From Wikipedia "An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed"