Lemongrass
Lemongrass, a tropical grass, originated in Malesia but now grows widely across the Fifth World.
#Human relations
People use lemongrass as an herb in cooking, particularly to season poultry and seafood. They also brew it in a tea, either by itself or as flavoring in another kind of tea. Aside from cooking, people of the Fifth World will often use lemongrass oil in cleaning for its anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties, and in skin ointments for its pleasant scent and insect deterrence. They may also weave dried lemongrass leaves into hats, baskets, and sleeping mats.
In many places, people believe lemongrass to have medicinal value, but exactly which ailments it treats varies by culture. Most generally agree, however, that it has calming properties and encourages overall health.
#Lemongrass People
A community that specializes in relationship with lemongrass will often tend towards horticulture, and therefore probably live in settled villages. Often these communities practice slash-and-burn agriculture, growing different guilds of plants at different stages and moving around the jungle in a regular cycle. Because of the ease of growing lemongrass and its mosquito-deterring properties, such communities will often plant them around the edge of the village.
Lemongrass also finds a home in traditional "banana circles" along with with banana, cassava, sweet potato, and taro. These circles make excellent use of compost. Cultivating these banana circles often becomes a central metaphor for such a community. The use of compost illustrates a larger principle that nothing goes to waste, while the cooperation and relationships between the plants in the guild often provide a rubric for social relationship. Some communities may even form sodalities around each member of the guild. Members of the banana society usually pride themselves on their ability to endure hardship in order to protect or shelter the rest of the community. Members of the society built around the staple root crops beneath — often taro, cassava, or sweet potato — might dedicate themselves to horticulture, home repair, childrearing, or some other understated yet essential practice in supporting the community. Members of the society built around lemongrass may focus on medicine and healing. Sometimes they also take on a magical or apotropaic mission of warding off bad luck.
Because lemongrass grows so easily and widely, however, not all communities that specialize in relationship with it will necessarily live in settled villages. More nomadic communities might have a close relationship with it if they frequently encounter lemongrass plants growing in the wild, especially if they hunt animals that enjoy eating lemongrass. Hunters may particularly appreciate its insect-repelling properties.
A community that specializes in relationship with lemongrass may distill essential oil from the plant for use in cleaning products and skin ointments. If they also have a relationship with coconut, they may mix lemongrass oil into a base of coconut oil for skin-softening cream that also repels insects. They will require receptacles for these oils; they may practice ceramics or glass-blowing, or simply put the products in dried and stoppered gourds. Either way, they might trade these products with other communities and become widely known for their high-quality health and beauty products.
Communities with close relationships with honeybees also find use in lemongrass, as it attracts bee swarms. These communities will spread a paste of lemongrass around, e.g., tree cavities to which they wish to attract bees. This has the added advantage of repelling wasps and Varroa mites. Such a community might honor lemongrass's role in attracting the bees by incorporating lemon and honey into a single dish. (Alternatively, such a community might use beeswax as a base for lemongrass-scented skin ointments, as mentioned above.)