Mount Cammerer Lilies

Hemerocallis fulva is the common roadside tawny day lily that I've loved since my childhood. It was brought here from Europe, and I understand it hardly ever reproduces from seed, so virtually all the plants all over the East are bits of the same plant.

Years ago, on my way back from a business trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, I stopped along the NC/TN border and hiked a bit of the Mount Cammerer trail. At one point the woods seemed different to me, and I was recalled from my daydreams long enough to notice old stone walls, and what was probably the foundations of a cabin, long gone. Along one wall, growing no larger than grass, due to the intense shade, was a run of day lily plants. I carefully nudged a small one from the ground and put it in a coke can I found on the trail. I pictured these brought to that sloping farmstead to brighten a kitchen garden. They had probably survived for decades in the gloom, with no chance of true growth or blooming.

These are the blooms of that plant, and they can also be seen in the photo of the top of our hillside stairs, posted yesterday. Nothing out of the ordinary to look at, but wonderful to remember. Today I wouldn't carry anything plant or soil from one region to another like that - there are too many pests that can be transplanted that way.