Regions: Central India

Feathery-leaved and drought-hardy; one grafted tree feeds a household through winter.

One of the three fruits of triphala; a large deciduous tree of the sub-Himalayan tract.

The third triphala fruit, from a broad-crowned tree of dry deciduous forest.

A thorny desert shrub whose resin has been traded for millennia; now endangered.

A monsoon-flowering lily of the western hills, grown for its white tuber cluster.

Near-indestructible succulent for a bright sill; water only when the soil is dry through.

A prickly low solanum of wasteland, with violet flowers bumblebees buzz-pollinate.

The black nightshade of monsoon fields — a leafy green in the east, a weed elsewhere.

A tiny monsoon herb that appears in every wet pot, with fruit strung under the leaf.

A dry-country shrub with yellow flowers, tough enough for a Rajasthan roof.