Goals: Grow food

Pale crisp fruit that smells of rose water, on a small spreading evergreen.

Big lobed leaves and starchy fruit; a coastal tree of Kerala and the islands.

Grows on water or wet mud and crops every fortnight through the monsoon.

A peppery salad green for a shady tray of running or frequently changed water.

The same lotus, grown in deep mud for the crisp rhizome of the Kashmiri kitchen.

Big heart leaves on a wet corner; the corm below and the leaf above both go to the pot.

Enormous upright leaves for a wet shaded corner — architecture rather than a crop.

Sticky green fruit for the Rajasthani pickle jar, on a tough small tree.

The chuli of Ladakh and Kinnaur — blossom in April, fruit and kernel oil by July.

The tejpatta of the sub-Himalayan tract — three-veined leaves, straight off the tree.