Cilantro vs. Parsley: What’s the Difference?

There’s often confusion between these two wonderful culinary herbs, for both cooks and gardeners. Cilantro and flat-leaf parsley have similar uses and are practically twins of each other, visually, but they do have distinct differences. This article clarifies their individual characteristics, including their growth habits.

It’s a good day on the blog when I get to talk about two of my favorite, most useful, fresh herbs: cilantro and parsley. As a cooking educator, I often get questions about when to use which. And in the garden, there are often assumptions that they grow similarly to each other, which is not quite the case.

A couple of notes before we get started. In the U.S., we refer to the green leaves of cilantro as cilantro, while in Europe and India they’re called coriander. In the U.S., coriander are the seeds of the cilantro plant.

There are two main types of parsley: flat-leaf (or Italian) and curly. Flat-leaf parsley has a strong, herbal, grassy flavor. Curly parsley, on the other hand, is mild in flavor and papery in texture and is usually used just as a garnish. All references to “parsley” in this article will be referencing flat-leaf parsley.

Now, let’s get to the deets!

Botanical Overview

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) — Cilantro (formerly known as Chinese parsley) is a member of the Apiaceae family, and is actually related to parsley. Not surprisingly, given their appearance.

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) — As noted above, parsley is related to cilantro and is also a member of the Apiaceae family, which includes carrots, fennel, chervil, dill, cumin, lovage, celery, parsnips, Queen Anne’s lace, and more.

Some members of this family — including parsley, dill, carrots, and parsnips — have interesting blooming habits, where the seed-producing flowers are huge, showy, umbrella-like structures, known as umbels, with tiny yellow or white flowers.

Flavor

Cilantro: Also known as coriander in Europe and India, cilantro has a distinct, pungent flavor often described as fresh, citrusy, and slightly peppery. Most people have a love/hate relationship with cilantro because of the presence of aldehydes, which some perceive as a soapy or metallic flavor. But for those of us where cilantro doesn’t taste like soap, it’s a much beloved herb that’s crucial in salsas and guacamole.

Parsley: Flat-leaf parsley has a more robust flavor, described as fresh, slightly bitter, grassy and earthy with pepper undertones, making it suitable for a variety of dishes, especially within Italian cuisine.

Plant Life Cycle

Cilantro: Cilantro is an annual plant, meaning it completes its life cycle — grows from seed, produces leaves, and then flowers to produce seeds — in one growing season, and does not survive from one year to another.

Cilantro is distinctly a cool-weather plant and will bolt (go to seed) as soon as the weather turns hot. This, of course, is a real bummer for salsa lovers, as cilantro’s growing season does not overlap with onions, tomatoes, and peppers.

Cilantro is easy to grow from seed, and also easily produces seed. When the plant produces flowers, leave it be, and you’ll see seeds appear soon enough. Interestingly, the young, tender, bright green seeds are edible and delicious — pick a few for a treat in your green salads.

Mature seeds will dry out to brown, and can be ground into the spice known as coriander, or saved to replant next year. (Learn more about how to grow cilantro).

Parsley: Parsley, like many other species in the Apiaceae family, including carrots, is actually a biennial plant, which means it takes two years to complete its life cycle. It grows delicious, edible leaves in its first year and dies back. Then resprouts in the spring of the second year to produce flowers and seeds. Seeds that drop to the ground can sprout the following year as a first-year plant, beginning the cycle anew.

Most gardeners grow parsley as an annual reseeding fresh every year. My parsley garden, however, contains both first and second-year plants, so I have a yearly supply of fresh parsley without having to reseed each year. Second-year plants do have green foliage, but they’re easy to tell apart from first-year plants, as the leaves are long and spindly and definitely not very flavorful.

Try it for yourself: grow parsley this year, in a well-draining, loamy location (either from seed, or from starter plants from the garden center), and harvest a few of the leafy greens as you need them throughout the summer. Cut the plants back to ground level at the end of the season, rather than pulling them out by the root. Next year, those plants will regrow and produce huge flowers that look like yellow fireworks early to mid-summer.

The flowers will produce seeds by the fall — let them release naturally to the ground, or give the blooms a shake to dislodge the seeds. Cut the plants back again at the end of the season. They won’t return next year, but the seeds that fell will take hold and sprout.

Growing Conditions

Cilantro — As mentioned above, cilantro is a cool-weather plant and grows best in the spring. You can plant seeds as soon as the soil warms sufficiently. Or sow them in containers, which is what I normally do.

Unfortunately, cilantro will bolt as soon as the weather gets hot, even if only briefly. Here in the Ohio Valley, we usually have a freak 90ºF hot streak over Memorial Day weekend before cooling back down to normal June temps. That small stretch is enough to send plants into flowering mode.

Like most herbs, cilantro prefers loamy, well-draining soil and even watering throughout its short growing cycle.

Parsley — Parsley is much hardier than its cousin, cilantro, and can tolerate a wide variety of conditions. Sow parsley seeds in late spring, when the threat of frost and snow has passed. Seeds will take a while to germinate, so be patient.

Parsley grows well in loamy, well-draining soil and thrives in full sun or partial shade. I always plant parsley in its own in-ground bed, because it’s quite prolific and, with enough seeding, can grow into a large, bushy bed.

One really cool thing about flat-leaf parsley is that it can survive cold temperatures surprisingly well. In fact, one winter, as an experiment, I draped a row cover over an entire first-year crop, and the plants lasted well into February, full-flavored and everything. Here’s a photo of the experiment in late December that year:

I do believe the plants would’ve lasted even longer if we hadn’t had a significant snowstorm that tore down the row covers and flattened the bed with wet, heavy snow.

Seed Germination

Cilantro — Coriander, the seeds of the cilantro plant, germinate quite easily. Sow them about a 1/2″ deep and water well. Keep an eye out on the weather forecasts in your area, and plant them as soon as you can in the spring. Cilantro’s short growing season means that the earlier the head start you can get on your crop, the longer your still-short season will be.

Then, depending on how the summer temps trend, you can try for another crop in the fall. I used to do both spring and late summer cilantro crops, but for the last 5 years or more, Octobers are quite hot — with several days in the 90ºFs — followed by an abruptly frosty November, so my late summer crops never really get a chance to green out sufficiently.

Parsley — Seeds take far longer to germinate than cilantro. If you’re sowing seeds by hand (rather than depending on the previous year’s fallen seeds), you can soak them overnight prior to planting to speed the germination process.

The sprouts are also rather slow-growing, and seem to take forever before they bush out into a useable herb. But parsley’s long growing season more than makes up for its slow start!

I’ll also note here that I personally don’t find it worthwhile to purchase cilantro plant starters in the spring. The seeds are inexpensive and germinate quickly, and I swallow hard at the thought of spending $5 for a little pot of cilantro seedlings at the garden center when the plant will be finished leafing out in just a month or two.

Parsley, however, is a different story. If your spring has been wonky, or you just don’t want to take the chance of poor seed germination, it’s absolutely worth buying starter plants. The long growing season pays for itself.

Leaf Appearance

Cilantro and parsley resemble each other quite closely, both in growth habit and branching and leaf appearance. When you’re growing them in your own garden, being able to tell them apart isn’t a particularly necessary skill, since you know where your plants are lol.

But, at places like the grocery store or farmers’ market, where items are often unlabeled or misplaced, knowing what the differences in leaf shape can be helpful.

In general, cilantro is more curvy (mnemonics alert: “c” for curvy and cilantro). Each leaf has a slightly rounded shape, almost resembling the clubs symbol on playing cards. The lobes on the leaves have rounded edges and align in ways that make the lobes seem rounded.

Parsley, on the other hand, is more pointy (“p” is for pointy and parsley). Each leaf comes to a point, like the spade symbol on playing cards. The tips of each fanned lobe are also pointy, sometimes with a visible dot on the tip, which you can clearly see in one of the photos above.

When at the grocery store, it’s usually easier to cilantro and parsley apart by the bunch, rather than examining individual leaves. A bunch of cilantro will have a more rounded appearance, while the parsley can look quite spikey at times.

Stem Appearance

Another interesting difference between cilantro and parsley is the shape of their stems. Cilantro has thin, flexible, rounded stems that are hollow, while parsley has a distinct triangular shape.

Note that the stems of both herbs are edible. While cilantro’s leaves are best used fresh — say, mixed into guacamole or sprinkled over a finished dish — its stems can stand up to cooking. To use, chop up the stems and add them to the pot along with a dish’s other aromatics.

Parsley stems can be chopped up along with the leaves and used fresh or cooked.

I hope you found this article interesting and that it helps clear up any questions about the differences between cilantro and parsley. Happy herb gardening!