View source for Lemon Myrtle

{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| image = Backhousia citriodora.jpg|370px
| image_caption = ''Backhousia citriodora'', garden specimen, in flower
| name = Lemon myrtle
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[dicotyledon|Magnoliopsida]]
| subclassis = [[Rosidae]]
| ordo = [[Myrtales]]
| familia = [[Myrtaceae]]
| genus = ''[[Backhousia]]''
| species = '''''B. citriodora'''''
| binomial = ''Backhousia citriodora''
| binomial_authority = [[Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller|F.Muell.]]
}}

''Backhousia citriodora'' (Lemon Myrtle, Lemon Scented Myrtle) is a [[flowering plant]] in the family [[Myrtaceae]], genus ''Backhousia'', native to subtropical rainforests of eastern [[Australia]]. Other common names are Sweet Verbena Tree, Sweet Verbena Myrtle, Lemon scented Verbena, and Lemon scented Backhousia.

It can reach 20 m in height, but is often smaller. The [[leaf|leaves]] are [[evergreen]], opposite, [[lanceolate]], 5-12 cm long and 1.5-2.5 cm broad, glossy green, with an entire margin. The [[flower]]s are creamy-white, 5-7 mm diameter, produced in clusters at the ends of the branches from summer through to autumn, after petal fall the calyx is persistent. 

Lemon myrtle was given the botanical name ''Backhousia citriodora'' in 1853 after the English botanist, [[James Backhouse]]. The common name reflects the strong [[lemon]] smell of the crushed leaves. 

Lemon myrtle is sometimes confused with "lemon ironbark", which is ''[[Eucalyptus staigeriana]]''.