Once of the first herbs I planted for the summer months was coriander, the leaves are delicious in curry dishes and the seeds have a sweet-smelling oil. Once I’d put it in the ground, I assumed everything would be fine and I’d harvest it every now and again before cooking. Little did I know, the plant had different plans as I now have a thick stalked flowery plant in place of the soft, waxy leaves I had before.

I was a little confused, had Mother Nature decided to amuse herself by swapping my plants around, did aliens land and give me a new mutant variety? Unfortunately, nothing that exciting, but still pretty cool. It turns out that depending where the plant is located, you will either end up with a flowery bush or a bundle of leaves. I have a pretty sunny garden so mine was in full Sun and getting plenty of water (compost tea in the later stages) which caused it to “bolt”. The transformation is pretty quick and once it has started, it’s too late to stop it.

If you’re wondering what it looks like, the stalks will get a lot stronger (they’ll start off very limp) and you’ll see some really thin leaves. You may have seen something similar in cumin, carrots and parsley, which are all part of the apiaceae family. It’s not just the light from Sun that caused it, but the defence mechanism that is built into the plants. If they’re stressed (put in uncomfortable conditions) too much in their first year of living, they’ll go straight to seed to ensure they survive long in to the next year. Considering its Mediterranean/North African roots, they’re probably used to being subjected to excess heat and dying out, so this is their method of adaptation.

I was a little upset at first since I was looking forward to eating it by the handful, but the bees/wasps/everythingflying it has attracted is more than worth it. The flowers are very pretty and the smell is gorgeous, I’ve decided on stressing one plant and then putting it in the shade with a non-bolted one so I won’t have to plant coriander again for many, many years. Although from the looks of it, I’m going to need a bigger pot…

PS: To the overseas readers, it should be noted that coriander is also known as cilantro/culantro depending on where you’re from