Goals: Grow food

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

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

The kokum of the Konkan — a slim tree with fruit that makes the summer drink.

Sour fruit straight off the trunk, in constant supply on the wet coasts.

Ribbed yellow fruit several times a year on a compact tree.

Purple fruit in June and dense evergreen shade for the rest of the year.

Kagzi lime — the single most useful pot tree for an Indian household.

The fruit of the dry west, cropping where irrigation is impossible.

Mosambi — a grafted tree in a big tub crops well in the west and centre.

A century-tree with feathery shade and the sourness of half of Indian cooking.