Culantro
Eryngium foetidum
Sawtooth coriander. A rosette umbellifer that tastes like concentrated cilantro and holds heat in cooking. Not cilantro, not eryngo ornamental sea holly as a flavor match.
GROW → HARVEST → EAT → DRY → POWDER → CAPSULE → GUMMY — forms are not equivalent. Food first.
Identity
Also called: sawtooth coriander, recao
What it is
Sawtooth coriander. A rosette umbellifer that tastes like concentrated cilantro and holds heat in cooking. Not cilantro, not eryngo ornamental sea holly as a flavor match.
Edible portions
- leaves
Absence of a portion from this list means it is not treated as food here — not that every other part is toxic.
Growing
- Climate. 10–11 or a summer/pot crop
- Light. Part shade, heat, moisture
- Soil. Rich, moist
- Planting. Seed slow; likes humidity.
- Harvest. Outer leaves; it is a biennial that bolts to a spiky umbel.
Preparation and culinary uses
- Sofrito, Caribbean and Latin cooking — add where cilantro would vanish in heat
Next steps
Sources
- USDA PLANTS Database — taxonomy and range (verify current entries)
- No USDA FoodData Central nutrient profile is attached here. That is not a claim that the plant contains no nutrients.
- State cooperative extension growing guides — verify for your region
Honest incompleteness is preferred to fabricated completeness. If a section is missing, no record for it is attached here — not a claim that the plant lacks that characteristic, and not that it was omitted as a secret.
Internal quality class B. Good foundation: enough unique information to exist as its own destination.