Two harvests, two names, one packet. Sown for its leaves it gives you cilantro — bright, citrus-and-pepper leaves that lift a curry or a salsa. Left to run on, the same plant flowers, feeds the bees, and ripens into the round warm seeds of the spice rack.
The flavours are quite different at each end. Green and zesty in the leaf, warm and orange-spiced in the seed, and between them they sit at the heart of kitchens from Mexico to India to Thailand.
This is the classic culinary coriander rather than a slow-bolting strain, which means it does what coriander naturally does: in summer heat it runs to flower. That is half the point. Sow a short row every two or three weeks for unbroken leaf, and let the late sowings bolt for seed. It resents transplanting, so sow it where it is to grow.
