day lily (Hemerocallis fulva)
non-native
picture taken in june
another garden escapee, the orange day lily - sometimes just called day lily (or day-lily), - has a wide range of alternate common names! many of them due to the range of places it's happy to escape to - ditch lily, railroad daylily, roadside daylily. it does indeed grow by the side of the road!
these are not "true lilies" - they're not in the Lilium family - but they look similar. apparently they're called day-lilies because the flowers only last one day!
these guys have tuberous roots which they use to propogate themselves, and they'll grow just about anywhere. they're drought-tolerant, adaptable, and grow well in pretty much any light. it's considered invasive in some states! it can be difficult to get rid of these once they're settled somewhere, due to their rooty reproduction; this is great for an easy decorative addition to a garden, but terrible if it's crowding out native plant life. despite the weedy behavior, it's pretty enough and intentionally planted enough that it isn't generally identified as a "weed."
important to know: lilies and daylilies are very toxic to cats! even just a bit of pollen they lick off their fur or drinking water from a vase the flower is in can cause rapid (within 3 days!) fatal kidney failure. absolutely do not bring these into your house if you have cats. (they can also make dogs sick, but they won't die; it's a cat thing specifically.)
unlike cats, people can eat these just fine! apparently the flowers taste like lettuce and you can put them in a salad, the flower buds taste like green beans if you cook them, and the tubers have a nutty flavor.
the orange day-lily's bloom time varies since there's a lot of different cultivars; spring and summer, broadly speaking.