Lemon Verbena Herb Society

Here is an herb that migrated from the New World to the Old. Lemon verbena is an unassuming shrub that charmed the Spanish explorers who happened upon it in Argentina and Chile. There, the shrubs grow to 10 to 15 feet tall, but because they are so sensitive to cold weather, North Americans usually confine them to containers. 
     Lemon verbena is a deciduous woody shrub which has a distinctive lemon fragrance. Flowers: Lavender; tiny, tubular, two equal lips four stamens (two short, two long); four-toothed calyx; in spikes or racemes from leaf axils. Leaves: Light green, lanceolate, pointed, margins slightly toothed or toothless, fringed with hairs, short stalks, 2-4 inches long 1/2 - 1 inch wide; in whorls of three or four. Fruit: Two seedlike nutlets enclosed by a calyx. Height: 10-15 ft. outdoors in warm climates, to 5 ft. in cooler latitudes or indoors.