I took the survey. I have two cats and when I have daylilies soaking their roots in water in the house, they think they are neat toys and chew on the leaves. They have never gotten sick from it.

Dot

Hemlady said:Thanks for that info Admmad. Gosh, and I thought if we ever had a food shortage in this country that I would still have my daylilies to eat Guess not.

Sharon did 2 articles on edible daylilies -- the new hybrids aren't safe, but the old ditch lilies are.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/S...
http://garden.org/ideas/view/S...

Thanks Mary, that was interesting and I never knew that the more recent hybrids were poisonous.

fiwit said:

Sharon did 2 articles on edible daylilies -- the new hybrids aren't safe, but the old ditch lilies are.
http://garden.org/ideas/view/S...
http://garden.org/ideas/view/S...

One of the articles states "Do not eat the buds of any cultivated ornamental daylilies. I know for sure that the old fashioned wild yellow or orange daylilies are fine to eat, and that includes Kwanso".

The Chinese have identified that the old species 'lemon lily' - "wild yellow"?, Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus, does contain the poison stypandrol/hemerocallin in its roots. For example, in the research paper "Pathological Studies on Central Nerve of Rabbits Induced by Hemerocallin" the researchers wrote "Hemerocallin was extracted from the roots of Hemerocallis lilio—asphodelus" and "This research proved that hemerocallin can hurt nerve fibers and nerve cells seriously，and cause cecity and death at last."

Chinese researchers have investigated some of the daylily species and found the poison in H. esculenta, H. minor, H. lilioasphodelus, H. thunbergii and H. altissima. That means that the older species daylilies are not necessarily safe. Another research paper added H. citrina to the list of daylily species known to contain the poison.

Unfortunately the situation is not simple. One older Chinese research paper indicated that H. citrina might be safe and might not contain the poison while a recent Chinese research paper indicates that H. citrina does contain the poison. The details of these research papers are difficult for me to determine as they are written in Chinese with only their abstracts in English.

Although the presence of the poison in the roots of a plant species does not guarantee that the poison is also present in other parts such as the buds or flowers it certainly means that the species may produce the poison in other plant parts under some conditions or sometimes.

My experience is that they just like to play with them, like any other grass-like plant. Given the choice between crab grass and daylily to eat, they'll choose crab grass. Some might regard this as justification for not weeding.

My little cat Minnie has eaten tomato seedlings, which are also considered poisonous. But usually she just plays with them. I'm also growing datura this year--they have shown absolutely no interest in eating the leaves.

A short movie of my cat Minnie mangling my irises.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Dora

Many years ago I had a cat that ate some of my African violet leaves and almost died from it.

Dora Minnie is a Dear! Too cute

Thanks Kim. She is a former rescue cat and has really come a long way.
Dora

Hi, everyone. I'm new here and just completed the survey. It seems that many people have cats that have had no issues with chewing on daylilies. I, however, have lost two cats to DL's. The first cat, age 16, went around many potted plants on a table to get to the DL. She chewed and then vomited up a large amount of leaves. Because I had two cats at the time and I was out of the house when this happened, I did not know until the next morning which cat was affected. She was purring, a sign of pain, kneading and her pupils were dialated. Blood work at the vet's showed kidney failure. DL toxins destroy the little tubules inside the kidney. There is no recovery from this devestation. Because of her age, I chose not to try to treat her, I did not think that would be fair to her. The second cat was two months later when I brought a DL into the house for a short time and turned my back on it and the cat. She only put 3 tooth holes into one leaf and that was enough for her to exhibit the same symptoms in very short order. She was 14 and again, I chose not to treat her. As a result, I will not allow my current cat, or any future cat, to have access to DL's at all. I will not take the risk. I do know that researchers feel that there is a similar action in the DL toxin as there is in raisins and grapes for dogs. Some dogs are affected and others not. I would guess there is a genetic component which means that the cat (and dog in the case of grapes/raisins) is playing a DL roulette....you won't know if your cat will be affected until they actually chew on the plant. I know this is long, but I feel it is important for others to know that there are cats who die from DL toxins.

Hi Tijori,

Do you know the names of the two daylily cultivars?

Did the two daylilies have flowers or scapes at the time you bought them into the house?

Were the two cats related in any way?

I'm not sure that a genetic component is involved in the cats (although that is possible)- a genetic (or environmental) component may be involved in the daylilies and that is more likely. That is why the cultivar names are important as is detailed information about the daylily plants.

I have a thought and it's just a thought. With the age of your two cats effected, is there a possibility that the cats were already sick and they ate the leaves or chewed on the leaves trying to throw up??? My kitties do this all the time with grass and I've seen my dogs do this same thing many times. I have watched them eat the grass and within moments get sick. SO, this is just one of those things that I've always assumed was true, the following: A cat or dog eats grass to induce vomitting. I have no idea if there is any proof to this.

I've never seen any of my animals specifically eat a daylily leaf.

I am starting to worry. One of my ragdolls, who I can walk, has suddenly taken a liking to daylily leaves just in the last week. Usually he only eats grass for fur ball management.
Do we know for sure that daylilies are toxic to cats?? So far he has eaten Earl Barfield, some seedlings and a noid.

PS. I have been going through the online information and the definite statements about fatality. Considering what he ate yesterday and the day before I am surprised he isn't dead yet. But if he keeps it up an irate daylily grower might cause definite death.

We do not know for sure that daylily leaves (or that all daylily leaves all the time) are toxic to cats. There are many (including me) who have cats that eat daylily leaves and they suffer no effects.

A possible problem with the online statements is that many gardeners, etc., call daylilies (Hemerocallis) - lilies and some gardeners call lilies (Lilium) - daylilies.

Lilium apparently are toxic.

I only have daylilies in my yard, nothing in the true lilium family. I let my cat outside only while I watch him within that yard, and a few days ago I woke up to find him with an elevated heart rate, glazed eyes, and drooling. An hour later he was better, and I had a vet run blood tests. The tests showed his kidneys and liver were fine. So maybe I got really lucky and he only chewed just the tinest bit. He often chews on the grass growing between my daylilies, so I feel the daylilies must have been the cause.

@TomThumb
Since you watch your cat in the yard did you see him eat daylily leaves the last time he was in your yard before he showed the symptoms?
Did you examine any daylily leaves for signs of being eaten?
Are there any other plants or trees growing in your yard other than daylilies?
Are there any other weeds growing between your daylilies other than grass?
Are there any insects in your yard - ants, caterpillars, worms, bees, wasps, or frogs, mice, birds, shrews, etc.?

There are weeds between them too, all the other plants in my garden are roses. A poisonous weed is a possibility I just don't think it's likely, and I have way too many daylilies to be able to find evidence of him chewing or not, he likes to crawl right in the middle of them. I obviously can't be 100% certain in this case, but I definitely don't feel right about my cats playing in them anymore.

He is mostly a indoor cat, I think cats that are mostly outdoors don't chew on tons of grass and naively bits of what is near it. So I think having to worry they well ever chew on a daylily leaf is only an issue with indoor cats.

Also I never spray or use any chemicals on my plants, I thought I should mention that as well.

@TomThumb Many people who grow daylilies have cats and have typically said that if the cats nibble on them they do not develop symptoms. There have never been any scientific trials to confirm daylily toxicity in cats so we're still in limbo on this issue. I notice that you have posted in the iris forums, do you have irises in your garden? Iris are also reported to be toxic to cats and one of the symptoms is drooling.

I have two cats. One Persian, Lily, is indoors only. I have brought in scapes with pods to ripen as well as proliferations to root in vases. Lily has chewed on the scapes themselves, as well as daylily foliage, and has shown no signs of getting sick from either. This has happened on more than one occasion as she seems drawn to whatever I put in the vases.

Our other cat, Stanley, goes indoor and outdoor as he pleases (or when I do). When I'm doing my pollinations, he often lies in the daylily seedling bed and nibbles on the foliage around him. He also has never shown signs of sickness from consuming the leaves.

Our season here is at an end, but I will try to remember next year to write down and send you additional info if requested.