Regions: Central India

The tree of the Thar — Rajasthan’s state tree, feeding people and stock in drought.

Thorny, nitrogen-fixing and useful on land nobody else will plant.

Fruit in March, silkworm leaves all summer, and shade in between.

Two crops a year in the west, and content in a large container.

Handsome, thorny and productive on poor dry soil; good in a big pot.

Kagzi lime — the single most useful pot tree for an Indian household.

Mosambi — a grafted tree in a big tub crops well in the west and centre.

A century-tree with feathery shade and the sourness of half of Indian cooking.

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

A thorny hedge shrub that gives pickling fruit and keeps animals out.