Bahamian Bush Medicine: Fever Grass + Lemon Grass and Key Lime Tea!

I'll admit it, I goofed and never got a good picture of the fever grass by itself. But I was able to capture the key lime tree and the tea in the cup is a combo of the two. Since both are useful for healing I figure the more the merrier. 

In case you haven't figured it out by now lemon grass and fever grass are the same thing, the second is simply what the locals refer to the monocot as.

As its name suggests, fever grass(Andropogon citratus) is most commonly used by islanders to reduce fevers. It also is taken regularly, with a little sweetener since the tea tastes very similar to warm lemon water. Fever grass additionally is useful for relieving high blood pressure, vomiting, exhaustion, aiding in sickness recovery and relieving achy joints.

The grass grows throughout the Caribbean in sandy soil in both inland and coastal regions. The leaves look similar to sugar cane and smells lemony.

Fever grass should be boiled 10 minutes or longer and is effective due to the many volatile oils and flavonoids it contains. At this point Citronella, Limonene, Linalool and Luteolin have been identified.
As I said before, the tea is super refreshing hot or cold. So I encourage you to sit back, relax and sip some fever grass.

Sources:
WedMD
Wilmanowicz, Renate. Bush Medicine in the Bahamas: A Modern Approach. Lexington, 2012. 24-25. Print.