Shiny Leaves Like Lilies but No Flowers? What can they be?

watermelonpunch · Sun May 05, 2013 8:12 am

Northeastern Pennsylvania

about 6 cropped up right in what was last year a grassy footpath (light use)
(ie: not where anything was planted last year)

they are about 1 foot tall, maybe about 8 inch diameter

Shiny leaves almost look fake ha ha

applestar · Sun May 05, 2013 8:41 am

Hm... They look like lilies?

watermelonpunch · Sun May 05, 2013 10:33 am

What kind could they be though?

I have stargazer lilies and day lilies and some kind of wild tiger like day lilies... and these things don't look like any of those, for example.

In fact, I spent a whole week of 2-3 hours per day, trying to pull out day lilies that were so dense when I moved here (winter of 2011/2012), that last summer, basically almost none of them actually flowered... because they are just so densely populating that flower bed. (There must be HUNDREDS of them - and I think we saw 2 flowers.)

At any rate, I didn't see these things (pictured in OP), at all last year. I don't remember seeing them, and I have no pictures of that area that show anything like that. (I checked.)

Anyway, a couple are right smack in the middle of a footpath I need to use to get to the back of my flowerbed (where the day lilies are for example)... so when I pull a couple of them out, I'll report what kind of roots they have.

applestar · Sun May 05, 2013 11:42 am

I'm thinking like the stargazer type or Asiatic or maybe Madonna (Easter) lilies and not daylilies. What else has leaves and stalk structure like that?

I'm curious to find out, too,

watermelonpunch · Wed May 08, 2013 12:53 am

Thanks for the suggestions.

Definitely not a stargazer lily, I have those, and I see them growing now (not near these), and recognize them from comparing to the leaves in the photos I took of the blooms last year.

These plants have shiny, almost succulent leaves except they're too flimsy to be succulent... but that sort of rubbery consistency.

Now they are starting to wilt, turn lighter green & brown.
They're behaving sort of like the foliage of other spring bulb flowers... after they're done.
But it seems like they had no intention of flowering at all.
I could see nothing about the stem that would indicate that they'd send out a bloom under other circumstances either.

These plants have rather largish almost completely spherical bulb roots.

Bigger than standard marbles. definitely smaller than a golf ball, the largest I dug up so far is maybe just somewhat smaller than a ping pong ball. Bigger than the biggest daffodil bulbs I transplanted last week.
(I don't have a lot of experience with gardening as a whole, and I don't know much about bulbs... just that almost all the bulbs I've transplanted or been given, have been much smaller compared to these.)

They are clumped in groups of 3-4. The 3 I dug up so far (which were smack dab in the middle of a path), were bulbs of varying sizes... so I'm assuming they'd reproduced underground however they go about that.

watermelonpunch · Sun May 12, 2013 9:48 pm

Update. They all died back.
No flowers. Definitely some kind of springtime bulb plant though.

Still no luck finding any pictures online that look like that!

watermelonpunch · Sat May 03, 2014 1:17 pm

They're back!

Still no clue what they are.

I dug some up last year, and replanted the bulbs in different places, but they didn't come up anywhere else. Just these that I left where they were.

MarcP2 · Sat May 03, 2014 6:05 pm

They almost look like corn in the way they're growing, so I'm wondering if they are some kind of corn lily?

watermelonpunch · Sat May 03, 2014 10:43 pm

This is the best lead I've had yet, thanks!!!

I do now see the point about the configuration of those leaves and lily leaf configurations... and you definitely seem to be onto something with the corn lily idea.

The picture of corn lilies on this page seem very similar (minus the bloom):
https://gethealthywithheather.wordpress. ... are-alive/

I'm waiting now to see if mine ever bloom.
Didn't last year, they died back without even hinting at a bloom of any sort. Certainly didn't make any fruit of any type.

I can't decide whether they seem so impressive & interesting to me because they have those glossy leaves or because they're so bright green at a time when nothing else has really greened up yet... or both.

purpleinopp · Tue May 06, 2014 4:15 pm

Easter lilies?

pinksand · Fri May 09, 2014 11:38 am

They look a lot like my tiger lilies do right now.

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wee ... _lily.html

watermelonpunch · Sat May 10, 2014 10:55 pm

No sign they plan to flower, and some are already starting to brown & wilt now after a few days of nice weather.

It's a stumper.

purpleinopp · Wed May 14, 2014 10:14 am

This is fascinating. Maybe you could dig one up and show a pic of the underground structure? How long have they been there? Maybe not mature enough to bloom yet? Too much shade?

watermelonpunch · Wed May 14, 2014 9:01 pm

They're starting to wilt now, and most of it has turned tan. Never showed a sign that they might even think about blooming anything.

I'm going to move some more this year again, once they die back some more & I'm recovered from my spring back-breaking.

The ones I moved last year didn't come up where I'd moved them to (2 different locations).

I will take pictures of the root bulb things when I uproot them.
I would describe the roots as round bulbs. They look kind of like ornamental onion roots.

I would bet against lack of sun.
First, they're in a spot I would describe as "full sun" year round. IE: 6+ hours direct sunshine 12 months per year.
Second, at the time of year they come up - late April... there are no leaves on any trees anywhere around them, so they're actually getting at least 8 hours of direct sun... with about 12 hours of pretty bright light.
Third, they get mostly midday, afternoon, and evening sun... even after the leaves start coming on the trees, the only sun they'd be missing would be the morning sun anyhow. And like I said they come up before anything else is green, and have started wilting by the time the trees leaf out.

I would say most likely the soil is significantly toward the alkaline side... just judging by what grows in the vicinity and what does well & what doesn't, and what I know of the history of the area.

This area takes pretty regular winds directly. I would say only 25mph on average, but it's pretty frequent, with gusts up to 40mph on a fairly regular basis, occasionally more, particularly during the time these things come up.

We're at about 750ft elevation.
Gardening zone 6a, but I'm only a few miles from the border of 5b. Basically I'm in a city and it's in a pool of 6a zone in a river valley. So for perennial hardiness & temp extremes, I use 5b, but I use 6a for average temperatures and frost dates purposes.

purpleinopp · Thu May 15, 2014 11:34 am

Excellent info! Look forward to seeing the bulb. No idea of any other suggestions at the moment.

!potatoes! · Tue May 20, 2014 5:18 pm

so check this out: it's an associated press article published in a number of newspapers this past weekend:

https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Cr ... 474241.php

he talks about how they're finicky and frequently don't flower for a few years as they're getting established and don't necessarily transplant well either. sounded familiar.

watermelonpunch · Fri May 23, 2014 9:46 pm

OH MY MY MY!!!
Yes, yes, this definitely fits the description.
And what I've seen of the photos of the plants... certainly looks right.
Of course when you see those blooms, it's hard to even notice what the rest of it looks like WITHOUT the blooms... so no wonder it was so hard to find. I'm probably one of few actually taking photos of these things without the blooms. ha ha