Coriandrum sativum L.

The stem and leaves are used as a vegetable or culinary herb (coriander, cilantro); the fruit are used as a culinary spice, for oil, and as a dietary herb in traditional Chinese medicine (“hu sui”).

Coriander is a very common cultivated plant in the plains and the hills. Its wild distribution is uncertain. The leaves and the fruits are used as a spice. The fruits are also used in digestive ailments.

Plants to 60 cm high. Basal and lower leaves pinnate to 2-pinnatisect; petiole to 13 cm, shortly sheathing at base; blade ovate, to 14 × 8 cm; pinnae broadly ovate or flabelliform, 1–2 × 1–1.5 cm, variously toothed or incised; ultimate segments broad. Mid and upper cauline leaves ternate-2–3-pinnatisect, reducing up the stem; ultimate segments linear to filiform, 2–15 × 0.5–1.5 mm, obtuse, entire. Peduncles 2–10 cm; rays 2–8, 1–2.5 cm; bracteoles 2–5, linear, entire; umbellules 3–9-flowered. Pedicels 2–5 mm. Calyx teeth ovate-deltoid or ovate-lanceolate, unequal. Fruit 1.5–5 mm wide. Fl. and fr. Apr–Nov.

Plants 15-60 cm tall, branched. Basal leaves ternately lobed; segments oval to ovate; margin toothed; cauline leaves pinnately dissected; segments linear. Rays 3-6, unequal. Calyx teeth prominent, unequal. Petals purplish-white, the outer larger, bilobed. Styles slender, spreading, 1.5-2.5 mm long. Fruit sub-globose, c. 4 mm long; vittae in furrows obscure; commissure 2-vittate. Inner seed face concave.

Widespread throughout the world, frequently as an escape from cultivation as a culinary herb ('Coriander').

Distribution: A cosmopolitan cultivated plant.

2700 m

Fl. Per. Early spring to early summer.

Cultivated and sometimes naturalized. Almost throughout China [native to the Mediterranean region; cultivated worldwide].