Warning: gardening book geek hijinks follow.
The Illustrated Guide to Daylilies, edited for AHS by Oliver Billingslea in 2017, defines selfs and complete selfs like this:
"When the flower segments (petals and sepals) are all the same single color, the flower is designated as a self. The stamens and throat may be different. When all the flower parts, including stamen, throat, and perianth, are of the same color, the flower is termed a complete self."
Prior to that, Billingslea makes this statement:
"♣ Stamen color. Like the throat, the stamens may be a different color from the segments, or they may be matching. Usually they are light yellow to greenish shades. The anthers, which are borne at the tips of the stamens, are often darker in color—sometimes purple or black."
The way this is worded, he seems to be treating the stamens and the anthers as separate and distinct. Kind of like the hair on a person's head. The hair is part of the head but not the same as. It's confusing!
That said, I know exactly what everyone means by what diagrams of the stamen, which include the filament and the anther, seem to say (that the latter two are both parts of the former).
The book's example photo of a complete self is a double. The petaloid stamens, which make it a peony-style double, do end in modified anthers. These anthers are definitely not the same color as the rest of the flower.
I'm honestly not sure what to think, since the one daylily that comes up as a complete self in their database has dark anthers. Then this example is the same.
Does anyone know someone at AHS/ADS we could ask? For that matter, is it AHS, or ADS, or both? I never know what to call it now. 😉
I've really opened a can of worms, haven't I? Eeeeek.
