The Herbarium
Part XII · Lookalikes
Field pair
Cilantro for parsley
Cilantro and Parsley — take this sheet to the bed, not a guess to the kettle.
Easy to confuseKitchen
Cilantro for parsley
Two flat-leaf herbs on the same board. One is coriander. The other is Petroselinum. A soapy leaf is not hemlock — but the umbel family still wants a name.
Cilantro leaf is rounded and scalloped; parsley is saw-toothed and denser. Both are green to the crown. The deadly look-alikes are the roadside umbels, not each other — still, label the bunch.
The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.