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Verbena

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Aloysia citriodora

For culinary use, “verbena” usually means lemon verbena: a powerful lemon-scented leaf used in tea, cold drinks, fruit, sauces, fish, sweets, and creams.1

  • Its leaves are more intensely lemony than lemon balm; infuse them in dairy, syrup, sugar, or tea rather than expecting lemon-like acidity.2
  • Dried leaves retain their flavor well and make a strong hot infusion.2

Lemon verbena is frost-sensitive. In the Northeast, treat it as an annual or overwinter it in a bright, cool indoor spot before frost.12

Its lemon character comes principally from citral—the same paired terpenes that define lemongrass—while other terpenes add a floral edge. The plant is South American and belongs to the same family as Mexican oregano, not to the citrus family.3

Footnotes

  1. Illinois Extension, “Lemon Verbena,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩ ↩2

  2. Penn State Extension, “Lemon-Scented Herbs in the Garden and the Kitchen,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. (Scribner, 2004), PDF p. 424. ↩