Plant library
Explore Plants
Filter by what you want to grow, the space you have and the season you are in.
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Job’s TearsगुरलुCoix lacryma-jobiHard glossy grain used as food, as beads and as a brewing grain in the hills.
Silver Fernचांदी फर्नPityrogramma calomelanosA white-backed fern that colonises damp walls and cut slopes on its own.Wild Riceजंगली चावलOryza rufipogonThe wild ancestor of cultivated rice, still standing in eastern wetlands.
YongchakयोंगचाकParkia timorianaThe tree bean of Manipur — long flat pods with a pungent unmistakable smell.Muli Bambooमूली बांसMelocanna bacciferaThe bamboo that covers Mizoram, and whose mass flowering brings the rat floods.
Red Water Lilyरक्त कमलNymphaea rubraThe deep red night-flowering lily of eastern tanks and temple ponds.Common ReedनरकुलPhragmites karkaThe tall reed of Indian riverbanks, and the standard plant for a reed-bed filter.MussaendaमुसैंडाMussaenda frondosaOne enlarged white sepal per flower, so the whole shrub reads as pale bracts.IronwoodनागकेसरMesua ferreaGlossy drooping new leaves in pink, then white flowers with a gold centre.Himalayan CherryपदमPrunus cerasoidesPink blossom in November, out of season by every other measure — the hill wild cherry.Madhavi Lataमाधवी लताHiptage benghalensisA woody climber with fringed white-and-yellow flowers and a heavy sweet scent.AlderउतीसAlnus nepalensisA nitrogen-fixing pioneer of Himalayan landslides and north-eastern jhum fallows.Wild Mangoवन आमMangifera sylvaticaThe forest ancestor of the orchard mango, still fruiting in eastern hill forest.Silk CottonसेमलBombax ceibaFat red flowers on a bare grey trunk, then pods of cotton that blow down every street.Indian MahoganyटूनToona ciliataA tall hill-forest tree with pinnate leaves and scented pink-tinged timber.Naga Tree BeanतरुआParkia timorianaYongchak — long flat pods eaten across Manipur and Nagaland.Not sure where to start?
Answer three questions on the home page — your region, your space and your goal — and we will name two plants to sow this month.
How the library is organised
By regionEach entry notes where the plant grows well across India, from the Gangetic plain to coastal soils.
By seasonSowing windows for every month, so you never plant a winter green in May.
By spaceWindowsill, balcony, terrace or ground — filtered so you only see what will survive with you.
Checked by a botanistNames and facts are reviewed before publication; traditional uses are labelled as traditional.