Goals: Herbs & healing

A thorny southern climber whose pods have washed hair for centuries.

Khus — a grass whose roots hold a slope together and scent a summer room.

East Indian lemongrass, distilled in the north-east for citral oil.

A cold-desert shrub of Ladakh, nitrogen-fixing and vitamin-dense.

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

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

Glossy-leaved and salt-tolerant, with seed oil once used in every lamp.

A deccan hardwood whose bark and heartwood have long traditional use.

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

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