Lemon Verbena
Aloysia citrodora
A deciduous shrub with brittle, pale woody stems and narrow lance-shaped leaves carried in whorls of three or four at each node. The leaves are rough to the touch and release a sharp, clean lemon scent when bruised, holding it well when dried. Loose slender sprays of tiny white to pale lilac flowers open in late summer. Leaves are used fresh or dried for tea and to flavour sorbets, custards and dressings.
Native to western South America and grown in Britain and Ireland as a garden and container shrub. It wants full sun, free-draining soil and shelter — a south-facing wall or pot that can be moved under cover, since hard frost cuts it back or kills it. Not established in the wild here.
No serious toxicity is recorded for the leaves, which are long used fresh or dried in tea and cooking. The concentrated essential oil is rich in citral and can irritate or sensitise skin, so handle oil rather than leaves with care. This is a cultivated shrub rather than a wild plant: ask before picking from a garden, and avoid plants beside busy roads.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Leaf arrangement
Narrow, pointed leaves sit in whorls of three or four around the stem at each node, giving the shoot a tiered look from a couple of metres away. Lemon-scented herbs in the mint family carry their leaves in opposite pairs, never in whorls of three.
Stems
Rounded, woody and pale grey-brown, becoming brittle enough to snap rather than bend. Nothing about the stem is square or soft, which separates it from the mints and balms it is grouped with in the kitchen.
Leaf surface
Rough and slightly sandpapery above, with a prominent pale midrib and neat side veins running out to a margin that is entire or barely toothed near the tip.
Scent when crushed
A sharp lemon-sherbet smell with a faint resinous edge, far cleaner and more penetrating than lemon balm, and still strong in leaves dried for a year. A grassy or only faintly citrus smell means it is not this plant.
Flowers
Slender terminal sprays of very small two-lipped flowers, white to pale lilac, opening from midsummer into early autumn. Easily missed, and not needed for identification.
Updated 2026-08-07T20:34:20.754Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Herb