Pl. Pugill. 2: 14 (1815); Gen. Gram.: 351 (1986)
Description:
* Perennial, rarely annual, often tall. Leaves aromatic.
* Inflorescence a compound often large and complex panicle with short paired racemes enclosed in a spatheole. Racemes with paired spikelets; bases short, flattened and deflexed. The lower raceme with a homogamous pair of spikelets; internodes linear.
* Sessile spikelet with lower glume chartaceous, often streaked with oil glands, 2-keeled; the keels usually lateral and often winged near apex. Upper lemma bi-lobed with a short glabrous awn. Pedicelled spikelet well developed.
Genus with 40 species. Old World tropics and subtropics.
Type-species: Cymbopogon schoenanthus (L.) Spreng.
Note: C. winterianus introduced in Aburi botanical garden in Ghana, not established elsewhere and therfore not included in the key.