Goals: Biodiversity

A slow, tough native tree for a hot courtyard, with fruit that makes the summer sherbet.

The street tree of the plains; even a potted seedling supplies leaves for a pest spray.

A riverbank giant with pale bark — a tree for a campus or a colony park, not a pot.

An unfussy evergreen shrub with white throated flowers that carpenter bees work.

A high-altitude Himalayan herb — only worth trying in the hills, and only from nursery stock.

The spikenard of the high Himalaya, aromatic-rooted and strictly a mountain plant.

A dry-country shrub with yellow flowers, tough enough for a Rajasthan roof.

Feathery winter foliage, then umbels that hoverflies and small wasps work all day.

A marginal water plant for a tub, aromatic-rooted and steady for years.

A climbing vine of the monsoon, long used in home remedies and generous with shade.