香茅 xiang mao

Andropogon citratus Candolle, Cat. Pl. Horti Monsp. 78. 1813.

Perennial, shortly rhizomatous. Culms tufted, robust, up to 2 m tall, ca. 4 mm in diam., farinose below nodes. Leaf sheaths glabrous, greenish inside; leaf blades glaucous, 30–90 × 0.5–2 cm, both surfaces scabrid, base gradually narrowed, apex long acuminate; ligule ca. 1 mm. Spathate compound panicle large, lax, up to 50 cm, drooping, branches slender; spatheoles reddish or yellowish brown, 1.5–2 cm; racemes 1.5–2 cm; rachis internodes and pedicels 2.5–4 mm, loosely villous on margins; pedicel of homogamous pair not swollen. Sessile spikelet linear-lanceolate, 5–6 × ca. 0.7 mm; lower glume flat or slightly concave toward base, sharply 2-keeled, keels wingless, scabrid, veinless between keels; upper lemma narrow, entire and awnless, or slightly 2-lobed with ca. 0.2 mm mucro. Pedicelled spikelet 4–5 mm. Fl. and fr. summer. 2n = 40.

Commonly cultivated. Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [origin unknown; cultivated in tropical Asia and elsewhere].

This species (Lemon Grass), known only from cultivation, is grown on a large scale in parts of tropical Asia and South America for the lemon-scented oil extracted from its leaves. The oil is used for both medicinal and culinary purposes. Flowers are seldom produced.