Regions: Central India

The scented heartwood tree of the southern Deccan — a hemiparasite that needs a host.

White flowers with orange tubes that open at night and are on the ground by dawn.

The wild amla of the southern hills, smaller-fruited and tougher than the orchard kind.

The sap palm of Bengal and the Deccan, tapped in winter for nolen gur.

A small southern shrub with white flowers, long used for skin preparations.

Singhara — a floating annual grown in ponds and tanks across the north and east.

Bare branches and orange claws of flower in February — the tree that announces Holi.

Fat red flowers on a bare grey trunk, then pods of cotton that blow down every street.

Crocodile-bark and big leathery leaves; the tasar silk tree of central India.

A large deciduous tree of the Deccan, tapped traditionally for its red kino gum.