The daylily is the edible flower and unopened bud of plants in the genus Hemerocallis — not a true lily — long grown across East Asia for food as well as ornament. Its dried, spindle-shaped buds, sold in China as jin zhen ("golden needles") or huanghuacai, lend a sweet, faintly musky, chewy note to hot-and-sour soup, moo shu pork and Buddhist vegetarian dishes.