小黄花菜 xiao huang hua cai

Hemerocallis flava (Linnaeus) Linnaeus var. minor (Miller) M. Hotta.

Plants deciduous in winter. Roots ropelike, 1.5--3(--4) mm thick, sometimes fibrous, without a tuberous part. Leaves linear, 20--60 × 0.3--1.5 cm. Scape slightly shorter than or subequaling leaves, slender, solid; sterile bracts absent. Inflorescence short; axes very short; helicoidal cymes 2(or 3), 1- or 2-flowered; bracts lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 0.8--2.5 cm × 3--8 mm. Pedicel 4--18 mm. Flowers fragrant, opening in evening and lasting 1--2 days. Perianth lemon-colored; tube usually greenish, short, 1--2.5(--3) cm; segments spreading, 4--7.5 cm, inner ones 1.5--2.3 cm wide, wider than outer ones. Filaments ca. 4 cm; anthers pale yellow, sometimes purple-black adaxially, ca. 5 mm. Capsule narrowly ellipsoid, 2--3 × 1--2 cm. Fl. May--Jun. 2 n = 22.

Forests, thickets, grassy slopes, meadows, waste fields, wet places along valleys; 200--2600 m. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi [Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].

The flowers are steamed and then dried as a traditional food in China.