Goals: Grow food

A slow evergreen of the wet south-west, harvested as unopened flower buds.

Two spices from one fruit — nutmeg and mace — on the wettest coasts.

Coppiced for its inner bark; the leaf is a spice in its own right.

The tejpatta of north Indian cooking — a hill tree, not the Mediterranean bay.

A creeping pepper of the eastern and southern forests, with catkin-like spikes.

Tiered branches and huge leaves that turn red before falling — a coastal shade tree.

Figs in bunches straight off the trunk, feeding birds, bats and monkeys.

The tree of the Thar — Rajasthan’s state tree, feeding people and stock in drought.

Central India’s most important livelihood tree — flowers, oil and shade.

The fastest usable material on earth; one clump supplies poles for years.