Is in the Apiacea family, which includes celery, celeriac, parsley, parsnips, and carrot.
Culantro. Also called Recao, Eryngo, Ngo Gai or Mexican Coriander, this plant is very popular in Vietnam and Thailand. It is famous for its cilantro-like taste but the leaves are more aromatic, tougher and retain their flavor better when dried. culantro = (Eryngium foetidum), a different plant with different-shaped leaves. All three (parsley, cilantro/coriander, and culantro) are related to one another, and culantro's flavor is often described as a much stronger version of cilantro. In some dishes they can be interchangeable, but often they are not. Culantro is not an alternate spelling of cilantro. Answer: Culantro is a completely different plant from cilantro (see link below for more information on cilantro). Although the two are cousins, they look nothing alike and are quite easy to differentiate by appearance. The derivation of culantro and recao, by which the plant is commonly known in Central America, is unknown but many of its names outside its natural habitat compare it to the common coriander or cilantro, e.g. Hindi bhandhanya, broad dhanya, or coriander, and Thai pak chi farang foreign coriander.. Culantro, Eryngium foetidum, has long, serrated leaves and sports a blue flower when permitted to bolt. It is the leaves of culantro that are popular in Caribbean and Asian dishes. Culantro is also often called spiny cilantro and is not as widely available as cilantro. Check with your market's produce manager if you do not see any in with other fresh herbs. Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum L.), also called Chinese parsley, has a similar taste to recao and the two are often used interchangeably in cooking. It has light feathery leaves, much like parsley.Recao is in the Apiacea family, which includes celery, celeriac, parsley, parsnips, and carrot. Richard Jung/Photolibrary/Getty Images. Recaito is a green aromatic puree of onions, culantro (recao) leaves, garlic, green peppers and ajies dulces (small sweet chile peppers). In Puerto Rico, recaito is used as the base seasoning known as sofrito. When preparing Puerto Rican cuisines, you may notice it called by either name. Notice the absence of tomatoes.
http://www.smartgardener.com/plants/2757-culantro-culantro/overview http://spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/2275/is-there-a-difference-between-cilantro-and-culantro-in-spanish http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqculantro.htm https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1999/v4-506.html http://homecooking.about.com/od/cookingfaqs/f/faqculantro.htm http://www.agrisk.umn.edu/cache/ARL02275.pdf http://latinfood.about.com/od/seasoningmarinade/r/Recaito-Puerto-Rican-Sofrito.htm
what is recao