Xiang Mao

Cymbopogon citratus, lemongrass, is a robust tufted perennial graminoid in the family Poaceae, believed native to maritime Southeast Asia and now cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics for its essential oil and culinary use. The plant forms dense, fountain-like clumps 1-1.8 m tall from a short, branched, bulbous, white rhizomatous base. The numerous linear leaves are 50-100 cm long and 1-2 cm wide, drooping toward the tips, with rough scabrous margins that can cut skin, glaucous-green color, and a strong lemony aroma when crushed due to citral and related monoterpenes. Stems are slender and cane-like. In its native range and warm climates the plant occasionally produces large compound panicles of small, paired, awnless spikelets typical of the grass family, but cultivated material rarely flowers and is propagated by clump division. The plant prefers full sun, rich moist well-drained soil, and tropical to warm temperate climates.