Coriander: The Color of Manna

Coriander
Family:  Apiaceae
Genus:   Coriandrum
Species: C. sativum

     Reference:  Exodus 16:31

31 And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

 And also:  Numbers 6:7

(Via Wikipedia)

Coriander is an annual herb which prefers well-drained soil and full sun.  In Ohio, once the temperature warms up, the plant is quick to flower and seed.  I've found that succession planting will grant a steady supply of it's sharp-tasting leaves (known as cilantro) for a season full of salsa and Indian dishes.  It is a tall, stalky annual whose flowers grow in arrays of white colored umbels.  The leaves are deeply lobed and irregular in shape. 

There's a fair number of people who can't tolerate the taste of cilantro leaf; it houses an essential oil which is disagreeable to some, giving the plant a very soapy mouth feel and bitter, off-putting taste (likened to that of a stink bug).   Cilantro aversion has been discovered to be genetic!  (N.B.  Coriander is derived from the Greek κορις, for bug!)

The herb is native to southern Europe, and northern Africa; it thrives and grows intermixed with other agricultural crops. Writings from the Han Dynasty of China note many products created with coriander; all in all it may very well have been domesticated and used for over three thousand years.  Considered a carminative herb, it will help aid digestion, restoring appetite and alleviating nausea.  The seed itself is taken and chewed by the handful after meals; later Europeans would take the same seed and coat it in hot sugar syrup, creating a confit:  sort of like a Jordan almond, but with a very tiny seed instead.  

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When looking over a few books dealing with Scripture and plants, I noticed that a number of scholars had drawn attention to the deep wrinkled appearance of the coriander seed, either citing its imperfect appearance, or that it looked as if were puckered and drawn together as if it were a healing wound.  Digging a little further, the Hebrew word associated with coriander, gad, derived from gadad appears, meaning cut or cutting.  How or why these things are related is a linguistic scholar's guess, but I found it rather interesting.

Doubly interesting was realizing that coriander was well enough known in Biblical times that the outward appearance of a miraculous substance which was created to sustain, heal and inspire was summarized with a comparison with this odd, wrinkly little seed.  

I hope that when I'm old and odd and wrinkly, I'll too be used by God to sustain, heal and inspire.