What is the difference between lemon verbena and verbena?

The names of lemon verbena and verbena are quite similar, and many people cannot tell which is which. Let's take a look below at the differences between lemon verbena and verbena, so you can quickly distinguish the two.

1. Morphological differences

1. Lemon verbena: a deciduous small shrub, 1.5-3 m tall, with a square stem, hard and woody, rough and striped. Leaves opposite or whorled, lanceolate, with a strong fragrance. Flowers small, arranged in axillary, dense, cylindrical spikes; calyx small, 2-lobed, appearing two-lipped, the upper lip 1-2-lobed, the lower lip 3-lobed, white inside and red-blue outside; stamens 4, ovary 2-locular. Fruit small, dry. Flowering period June-August.

2. Verbena: Verbena, a perennial upright herbaceous plant, up to 120 cm tall, woody at the base, with simple opposite leaves, ovate to oblong-ovate, covered with stiff hairs on both surfaces, especially dense on the veins beneath. Terminal or axillary spikes, flowers blue-purple, sessile, calyx membranous, tubular, corolla slightly two-lipped, filaments very short; ovary hairless, fruit enclosed within the calyx, a small nutlet. Flowering and fruiting period June-October.

2. Main value

1. Lemon verbena is very valuable. It can be used to make tea, and can also be crushed and used as a filler, or mixed into sauces, beverages, and jelly-type desserts; some herbal teas with rather special flavors that are temporarily hard to get used to also become more refreshing after being properly blended with lemon verbena; even pharmacists mix it with certain herbs that are unbearably bitter.

2. The whole plant of verbena is used medicinally. It is cool in nature and slightly astringent in taste, and has the effects of cooling blood, dispersing blood stasis, promoting menstruation, clearing heat, detoxifying, relieving itching, expelling worms, and reducing bloating.

Lemon verbena and verbena are not the same, so they must be carefully distinguished to avoid confusing them.