Regions: Central India

The tall reed of Indian riverbanks, and the standard plant for a reed-bed filter.

A soft-haired jasmine that flowers through the cool months on a low wall.

The chameli of the perfume fields — long-tubed white flowers picked before dawn.

Twisted screw-shaped pods on a scrub shrub of the dry deciduous forest.

Sticky green fruit for the Rajasthani pickle jar, on a tough small tree.

The thorny bush that holds the Thar together, browsed by everything and killed by nothing.

Pink or white flowers all year on a shrub that survives the worst urban roadside.

Invasive across Indian forests — grow the sterile garden cultivars only, never the wild kind.

Maroon night flowers on long ropes, then metre-long fruit that alarms everybody.

A tough dry-forest tree with papery winged seeds that blanket the ground in March.