Lemongrass grow to about 2 meters (6+1⁄2 feet) and have magenta-colored base stems, Cymbopogon citratus is a perennial, shortly rhizomatous grass. Culms tufted, robust, up to 2 m tall, 4 mm in diameter, 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 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 homogenous pair not swollen. Sessile spikelet linear-lanceolate, 5-6 × 0.7 mm; lower glume flat or slightly concave toward base, sharply 2-keeled, keels wingless, scabrid, vein less between keels; upper lemma narrow, entire and awn less, or slightly 2-lobed with 0.2 mm micro. Pedicel led spikelet 4-5 mm.