Citronella Grass

This species yields citronella oil.

Perennial from a stout rootstock. Culms tufted, robust, up to 2.5 m tall, 1–2 cm in diam. Leaf sheaths reddish purple at base, smooth, glabrous; leaf blades dark green or dark brown when dry, drooping for 1/3 of their length, 30–100 × 1–2 cm, glabrous, abaxial surface scabrid, adaxial surface smooth, base narrow, apex long acuminate; ligule 2–3 mm. Spathate panicle large, narrow, congested, interrupted, 60–90 cm; spatheoles reddish brown, 1.2–2.5 cm; racemes 1–1.5 cm; rachis internodes and pedicels ciliate on margins; pedicel of homogamous pair not swollen. Sessile spikelet oblong-lanceolate, 3–4.5 × 1–1.2 mm; lower glume flat or slightly concave, reddish brown or purplish upward, sharply 2-keeled, keels narrowly winged, obscurely 0–3-veined between keels; upper lemma linear, entire or slightly 2-lobed, mucronate or very shortly awned. Pedicelled spikelet 3.5–7 mm. Fl. and fr. Nov–Apr. 2n = 40.

Commonly cultivated. Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [native to S India and Sri Lanka; introduced elsewhere as a crop plant].

Andropogon nardus Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1046. 1753.