The origin of the saying "the daylily has gone cold" and the toxicity of fresh daylily buds and how to handle them

Daylily, also known as golden needle vegetable, lemon daylily, or forget-sorrow grass, belongs to the order Liliales, family Liliaceae, a perennial herbaceous plant, with roots nearly fleshy and often spindle-shaped and swollen in the middle and lower parts. In daily life we often hear people mention that the daylily has gone cold, yet we do not know why. Do you know the allusion and origin of "the daylily has gone cold"? Is eating fresh daylily buds toxic? How should fresh daylily buds be handled?

I. The meaning of "the daylily has gone cold"

“The daylily has gone cold” is a teasing criticism of someone who is late or of something done late. It is said that in Qidong County, Hunan Province, an area rich in daylilies, the last dish served at a banquet is daylily, and if you arrive only after the last dish has gone cold, everyone will of course blame you, but in order not to embarrass you, they say ”wait until the daylily has gone cold”, and later “the daylily has gone cold” came to mean that too much time has passed and the wait has been too long.

II. The allusion of "the daylily has gone cold"

In ancient poetry and prose, “yellow flowers” specifically refers to chrysanthemums. Su Shi wrote in "Nanxiangzi - Double Ninth Festival at Hanhui Tower Presented to Xu Junyou": “All things come to nothing but a dream in the end; let it be, let it be; tomorrow's yellow flowers make even the butterfly sad.” “Yellow flowers” refers to chrysanthemums, and “tomorrow” refers to the second day of the Double Ninth Festival. “Tomorrow's yellow flowers make even the butterfly sad” means that if you miss the best time to view chrysanthemums on the Double Ninth Festival and come again after the festival, the flowers have already withered and even the bees and butterflies have lost interest, using this as a metaphor for something outdated; the most concise and most common way to put it is simply “too late”, which is exactly the same meaning as “the daylily has gone cold”.

III. The origin of "the daylily has gone cold"

“The cucumber dish has gone cold” evolved precisely from “tomorrow's yellow flowers make even the butterfly sad”, except that because Scholar Su's poetic line was too elegant, ordinary people swallowed it whole without chewing, unable to digest it, and so, as rumours passed from mouth to mouth and errors spread, they first turned “yellow flowers” into “daylily”, and later into “cucumber dish”. The reason such a misunderstanding arose is probably that the character “butterfly” also bore some of the blame, for is it not pronounced the same as the “dish” that holds the food! And so Layman Dongpo's “yellow flowers” finally became a “cucumber dish” served in a “dish”, and if you came late, would it not of course have gone “cold”!

IV. Are fresh daylily buds toxic?

Fresh daylily buds contain a substance called “colchicine”; this substance itself is not toxic, but after entering the gastrointestinal tract and being absorbed by it, it is oxidised in the body into the much more toxic ”dicolchicine“, so it is best not to eat too much fresh daylily.

V. Is the daylily root toxic?

The daylily root can also be eaten, contains many nutrients, and also has the effect of promoting lactation, but like fresh daylily buds it contains colchicine, and improper consumption can have adverse effects on the body, the most obvious manifestation being gastrointestinal discomfort, abdominal pain and other adverse symptoms in people after eating it.

VI. Are daylily buds still toxic after the stamens are removed?

Some people say that once the stamens are removed from fresh daylily buds they are no longer toxic and can be eaten without worry, but in fact this is wrong. Although the colchicine content of the stamens is higher than that of the petals, the mass of the stamens compared with the petals of the daylily is very disproportionate, and 60% of the colchicine in a whole daylily bud is distributed in the petals, so even if the stamens are removed, fresh daylily buds are still toxic.

VII. How should fresh daylily buds be handled?

Peel open each flower of the daylily and remove the stamens inside, because the stamens contain most of the toxin colchicine, then rinse the daylily clean and soak it in salt water for half an hour to weaken or eliminate the toxin, and only then can it be eaten without worry. Of course, you can also add a blanching step before stir-frying, which can also remove the toxin. In short, before eating fresh daylily buds you must be sure to follow these steps, otherwise poisoning may result.